NEW YORK — No. 6 seed Alexander Zverev keeps playing five-set matches — and keeps winning them. Frances Tiafoe? Not so much.
Zverev reached the third round at Flushing Meadows with his second five-setter of the week, edging Tiafoe 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 on Thursday to improve to 5-0 in matches that go the distance in 2019.
Says Zverev: “It’s usually what I do. The first few rounds at majors, I play five sets.”
It marked just the fourth time a top-10 seed at the US Open won a five-setter in each of his first two matches of the tournament.
Tiafoe, a 21-year-old American ranked 45th, dropped to 1-8 in fifth sets for his career.
That includes losses of that length in three of his past four US Opens.
In other early results, 15th-seeded David Goffin beat Gregoire Barrere 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in less than an hour and a half. Stan Wawrinka, the 23rd seed, was pushed to a fourth set but defeated Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3 to reach the third round.
Second-seeded Rafael Nadal faces Thanasi Kokkinakis in the late match on Arthur Ashe, No. 5 Daniil Medvedev plays Hugo Dellien and Nick Kyrgios takes on Antoine Hoang.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.