NEW YORK — Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev opened his bid for a second straight US Open final appearance with an impressive win, needing only 1 hour, 40 minutes to beat Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 on Tuesday in a first-round match.
Zverev, the No. 4 seed from Germany, ran his winning streak to 12 matches. He stopped Novak Djokovic‘s quest for a Golden Slam at the Tokyo Olympics and is among the players with the best chance to prevent a Grand Slam in New York.
Zverev, the runner-up here last year, followed up his victory in the Olympics by winning the hard-court title at Cincinnati.
“I’ve won two tournaments, I’m on a 12-match winning streak,” Zverev said. “I hope I can keep the level up and maybe even play better, because to beat Novak here is going to be an extremely difficult task.”
Also Tuesday, Maxime Cressy defeated ninth-seeded and Olympic bronze medalist Pablo Carreno Busta 5-7, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7) in the biggest early upset of the tournament.
Djokovic plays his first-round match Tuesday night against Danish qualifier Holger Rune. The top-ranked Djokovic is trying to become the first men’s player since 1969 to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in one year.
Djokovic would break a tie with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for most major titles among men if he wins the tournament. They all have 20.
Zverev came as close as could be to winning his first major title last year in Flushing Meadows. He took the first two sets against Dominic Thiem before losing in a fifth-set tiebreaker, becoming the first player to lose the US Open final after winning the first two sets since Frederick Schroeder in 1949.
He certainly looks capable of finishing the job this time. He stormed past Djokovic in the final two sets of their Olympic semifinal and then rolled past Karen Khachanov in the final.
He followed that with his win at Cincinnati, where he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev, both among the top five seeds in New York. Thiem is not playing this year because of a wrist injury, one of several big names sidelined.
Zverev is one of three men, along with Djokovic and Casper Ruud, with four titles this season. But he knows the tournaments that Djokovic won make him the obvious pick in New York.
“If a guy wins three majors in the same year and then is at the US Open, you have to give him the favorite card,” Zverev said. “Because if not now, then when?”
Cressy saved four match points in the fifth-set tiebreaker to knock off Carreno Busta, a two-time US Open semifinalist. He had fans chanting “Cressy! Cressy!” as they rallied behind the Open qualifier.
The French-born Cressy was a collegiate star at UCLA and used a big serve to slam 46 aces and advance into the second round. Down 5-2 in the deciding tiebreaker, the 24-year-old pulled off the biggest win of his pro career.
Reilly Opelka, the No. 22-seeded man, swept past Soon Woo Kwon, and fellow American Mackenzie McDonald upset No. 27 seed David Goffin 6-2, 7-5, 6-3. But Sebastian Korda, another promising young American, was eliminated when he retired against Nikoloz Basilashvili early in the second set.
Khachanov, the No. 25 seed, was knocked off by Lloyd Harris 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.