U.S. Open: Alexander Zverev tops Sam Querrey in first round, has eyes on Novak Djokovic

Alexander Zverev came within a whisker of winning the U.S. Open last year, falling to Dominic Thiem in five sets in an empty Arthur Ashe Stadium.

On Tuesday he returned to Ashe Stadium with fans in the stands, and on an extremely hot streak that he extended to 12 straight match wins with a 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 victory over American veteran Sam Querrey.

It was a good match to get out of the way and work himself into an Open frame of mind.

"Sam is somebody that on a hard court is extremely dangerous. Especially on a fast surface," Zverev said. "So he was serving extremely well today. I'm happy to win in three sets, because a match like that can get out of your hands very quickly, and I'm happy to kind of have it under control."

For Zverev, the No. 4 ranked player in the world and the No. 4 seed, getting a tough match to start is equivalent to a jump-start.

"Sometimes it's good to know that you're playing a very difficult opponent the first round, because then you're extremely focused and you know you have to play at a high level," Zverev said. "If you look at a little bit of history, I was always struggling with the guys that may be a little bit unknown, maybe not ranked as high or didn't have a history of playing well in big events. Those are the guys I always struggled with in the first few rounds.

Today was good, I mean, for a first round."

Both players served well with Zverev nailing 18 aces and 37 of his 73 serves weren’t returned by Querrey. The players didn’t spend much time in rallies. The average rally length was 2.76 shots and there were only three rallies of nine-plus shots and Zverev won all of them.

"There are still a lot of things to improve. From the baseline I could still play a lot better," Zverev said. "But to be honest, there were not a lot of baseline rallies. We were both serving quite well, and to return on this court is not easy."

There is a still a long way to go to reach another Open final and his first Slam title. But he has a proven pedigree, with four titles this year, having won in Madrid in May (beating Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals), in Tokyo, Acapulco and two weeks ago in Cincinnati, beating Andrey Rublev handily.

The Olympic gold in Tokyo was the crowning achievement of this season. And in stepping to the top of the podium there, he had to step over Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, denying the No. 1 player in the world a Golden Slam.

Djokovic comes to the Open with a chance to win the Grand Slam, having taken the Australian, French and Wimbledon titles. Assuming they both can get that far, Zverev would face him in the semifinals. And knowing he can beat him, especially because he rallied from a set down in Tokyo to win.

"If a guy wins three majors in the same year and then is at the U.S. Open, you have to give him the favorite card," Zverev said. "Because if not now, then when?"

But Zverev could be the player to end that dream.

"To be honest, I think I was the first person to beat him on a hard court or grass court this season, and I was also the only person to beat him at a very, very big event this year," Zverev said. "And me, I have been playing good. I'm on a 12-match winning streak. 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."