WHAT HAPPENED: No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev has become the highest seed to exit the 2025 US Open after being ousted by resurgent Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime on Saturday night.
Former world No. 6 Auger-Aliassime played relentlessly bold, attacking tennis—striking 50 winners to 29, including 23 off his forehand wing alone—to beat Zverev, 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-4.
The victory propels him into the fourth round, his best Slam result since 2024 Roland Garros and best at Flushing Meadows since his semifinal run of 2021.
Zverev had won six of the pair’s eight career meetings, and held set point for a two-sets-to-love lead under the lights in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
However, Auger-Aliassime remains undefeated against Zverev on the Grand Slam stage, scoring a second win to go with his five-set triumph over the German at Wimbledon in 2021.
“This feels good, this feels good!” the 25-year-old said with a beaming smile on court. “Obviously, job’s not done, tournament’s still going, but this means a lot to me.”
“It was a nervous start, first few games, and then after it was pretty crazy, pretty flawless. I was seeing it big today, and yeah, it’s good when you feel like that on the court, for sure.”
That nervous start manifested in a wobbly opening game lasting almost 10 minutes, where Zverev created multiple break point opportunities and converted to immediately get on the front foot.
Auger-Aliassime had the majority of the Armstrong crowd support and they were in full voice as he got on the board in the third game and broke back in the fourth after drawing Zverev to net.
Yet the world No. 3 broke serve again in the fifth game—an advantage he would maintain for the rest of the set.
The second set was a completely different scenario, with neither player able to generate a break point. It progressed to a tiebreak, and when Auger-Aliassime double faulted on the ninth point, Zverev had a minibreak at 5-4, with two serves to come.
He earned set point when Auger-Aliassime poked a backhand return long, but the Canadian held his nerve, erasing that and then holding two set points of his own—converting the second with a passing shot that clipped the net tape and bounced over Zverev, inside the lines.
It proved a fulcrum point in the match, after which Auger-Aliassime soared and Zverev played with increasing inconsistency and frustration. Auger-Aliassime broke Zverev in the first game of the third set, a frame he completed with 13 winners to five and a perfect eight points from eight trips to the net.
He surged in the seventh game of the fourth set, striking back-to-back forehand winners to reach 0-40 on Zverev’s serve, then forcing an error from the German to break.
Three games later he was serving for the match and he did not falter, dropping only one point as he completed his biggest win, by opponent’s ranking, since defeating then-world No. 2 Rafael Nadal at the 2022 ATP Finals.
WHAT IT MEANS: Auger-Aliassime, currently ranked 27th, had already demonstrated progress this week by clearing the second-round stage at a Slam for the first time in his past six starts.
By taking another step after beating Zverev—his first Grand Slam win over a Top 5 opponent—he enters the last 16 of a major for just the second time in his past 11 showings.
When he next faces 15th seed Andrey Rublev, he’ll be playing for a place in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal since the 2022 Australian Open—more than three and a half years ago.
“I’ve been coming here [to the US Open] since 2018. I’m still young, but it’s been a few years and I’m working my way [back],” explained the Canadian, now two wins from matching his 2021 semifinal run.
“It's nice because it's been a work in progress, and I feel like tonight everything came together very nicely, and all the things I've been working on have paid off tonight.
“It's a great boost of confidence… You have to be patient and trust that, like, if you have clear intentions in your practice and when the match comes that results like this will come.”
MATCH POINT: Auger-Aliassime has quietly compiled an excellent season on hard courts; he’s now fifth on tour in hard-court wins.
His 2025 win-loss record on the surface improves to 23-9, a win total trailing only Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton (both on 24), Taylor Fritz (25) and tour-leader Alex de Minaur (27).
Hard-court highlights for the Canadian this season include ATP titles in Adelaide and Montpellier, a final in Dubai, and this second-week showing at Flushing Meadows.
