Alexander Zverev arrived at the US Open as one of the sport’s most accomplished players still chasing a first major. The 28-year-old Olympic champion from Tokyo 2020, a two-time ATP Finals winner, a seven-time Masters 1000 champion and holder of 24 ATP Tour titles, began the tournament ranked third in the world and one place shy of his career-high at No 2.

Yet on Saturday in New York his bid stalled in the third round. Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked 24 places below Zverev, produced one of the best wins of his career, defeating the German 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-4. The 25-year-old Canadian had shown flashes at Slams before — a 2021 US Open semi-final is the high mark — but consistency has often been an issue. Prior to this event he had not reached a Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2022 Australian Open and had reached the second week of a major only three times in the intervening years. He also carried a 1-3 record at Flushing Meadows across the three years after 2021.

“I had a tough start, but then after, like a bit nervous to be honest, even though I’ve faced these players at these situations,” said Auger-Aliassime, post-match. “I was just a bit nervous and then once that got away, I felt good, and it’s nice because it just, it’s been a work in progress and I feel like, you know, tonight everything came together very nicely and all the things I’ve been working on have paid off tonight.”

For Zverev the loss is a setback that prolongs a stubborn Grand Slam drought. He had won six of eight previous meetings with Auger-Aliassime but looked short on confidence and tactical clarity as the match slipped away. This is his earliest US Open exit since 2018; he missed the 2022 tournament through injury. Recent Grand Slam form has been uneven: finalist at the 2024 US Open and the 2025 Australian Open, a Roland Garros quarter-final exit in 2025, followed by a first-round Wimbledon defeat and now this early New York exit.

Auger-Aliassime, the 25th seed, now moves on with a likely fourth-round clash against 15th seed Andrey Rublev. For Zverev, the search for a first major will continue into the next season.

Two of the WTA Tour’s most prominent champions meet again in a fourth-round US Open showdown after decisive third-round victories.

Third seed Coco Gauff reached this marquee match by dispatching 28th seed Magdalena Frech, dropping just four games in what was her most convincing performance of the tournament so far. Resurgent 23rd seed Naomi Osaka booked the clash by overcoming 15th seed Daria Kasatkina in the third round.

Their next meeting follows five previous encounters and a China Open quarter-final last October that ended with Osaka forced to retire injured. One of the pair’s most memorable meetings came at this tournament in 2019, when a 15-year-old Gauff made her New York debut and Osaka prevailed 6-3, 6-0. That experience proved formative for Gauff and helped shape her trajectory in the seasons that followed. “That moment, I remember it was a tough, tough moment for me because it was a hyped up match,” Gauff said.

“And I remember, looking back at it, I guess I put way too much pressure on myself thinking I maybe had a chance in that moment to actually do something, which I definitely did.

“But I think it was just that I felt more of expectation that I should than maybe belief. And so then, when I played her in Australia, that was more belief than expectation.

“Naomi and I, we aren’t like super close or anything, but we’re definitely friendly with each other, and I support her from afar and all the things that she’s done on and off the court. So I’m imagining we would probably be on Ashe, and at night, I’m just assuming.

“So it would be a cool kind of a deja vu type of situation, but hopefully it’ll be a different result.”

After beating Gauff in the third round in 2019, Osaka’s title defence ended with a fourth-round loss to Belinda Bencic. She returned to lift the US Open title in 2020, and this is her first time back in the second week in New York since that triumph. “Yeah, I mean my recollections were that I remember just knowing that she was going to be a really great tennis player, which she was,” Osaka said. “So now to be playing her again after six years, I don’t know if that makes me old, but, yeah, just to be at this point of my life and to be playing her again is honestly, for me, feels kind of special.”

Gauff arrives with serving concerns noted earlier in the tournament but believes facing a calibre opponent like Osaka can relieve some pressure. “I think it’s an advantage, like if I, for me, mentally, I think to play a calibre opponent like her.

“I think sometimes even though all the women on tour are incredible, but when you have these matchups where you know, you’re so heavily favourited, it puts more pressure, I think, than when you’re playing someone who I guess the odds people view it differently.

“I think she’s having a great season and is always a tough player and a threat on, especially on hard court. So I think, you know, that match, I guess, odds, why it can really go either way.

“And I think for me, that almost takes the pressure off.”

The winner on Monday will face Marta Kostyuk or Karolina Muchova in the quarter-finals.

A late finish on the men’s side forced the final scheduled match Saturday to start deep into the night, with Maria Sakkari and Beatriz Haddad Maia taking the court on Louis Armstrong Stadium at 11:28 p.m. The delay followed a near four-hour match in which Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated third-seeded Alexander Zverev in four sets.

The U.S. Open implemented a policy last year permitting the tournament referee to move any match that has not started by 11:15 p.m. to another court. A U.S. Tennis Association spokesperson said after the fourth set of Auger-Aliassime versus Zverev that Sakkari and Haddad Maia would either play on Armstrong as scheduled or be moved to another court. The spokesperson added that had Auger-Aliassime and Zverev gone into a fifth set, the Sakkari-Haddad Maia match would have been moved elsewhere.

The 11:28 p.m. start ranks as the seventh-latest opening at Flushing Meadows and occurred a year to the day after the record night-session start when Aryna Sabalenka and Ekaterina Alexandrova began at 12:07 a.m., technically on Aug. 31. The late start was not the latest for Haddad Maia; she once began a match against Bianca Andreescu at 11:38 p.m. in 2022.

Late-night scheduling at the majors remains a point of debate across the sport, with similar discussions at the French Open and Australian Open and an 11 p.m. curfew at Wimbledon. When Sakkari and Haddad Maia started on Armstrong, the final men’s match of the day, Tommy Paul versus Alexander Bublik, was only in the second set on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Earlier in the evening session on Ashe, Iga Swiatek rallied from down 5-1 in the first set to beat Anna Kalinskaya and open the night action.