Sporting an outfit reminiscent of the great Bjorn Borg, rising star Alexander Zverev needed to dig deep into his considerable pool of talent to end the run of Barbados qualifier Darian King in their first round match at the US Open.
Zverev was made to work hard for a 7-6 (11-9) 7-5 6-4 victory over world No.168 King, with the match not ending until 2.04am New York time as the players had to wait for the lengthy battle between Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep to finish.
Perhaps the wait affected Zverev's concentration. He made 64 unforced errors on the coveted Arthur Ashe Stadium. But he certainly looked the part of a young tennis star with the fourth seed wearing a striped headband and pin-striped shirt in a throwback to the 1970s.
Still the much-fancied 20-year-old German - winner of two Masters titles this season - needed almost three hours to see off King.
Next up the world No.6 will face Borna Coric, another of the ATP Tour's highly rated young prospects, who advanced with a 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 triumph over Czech Jiri Vesely.
It was a double celebration for the Zverev family as older brother, and 23rd seed Mischa, came back from a set down to beat American collegiate champion Thai-Son Kwiatkowski 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 4-6 7-5 6-3 in a three-and-a-half-hour battle.
Mischa Zverev, who upset Andy Murray on his way to a quarterfinal run at this year's Australian Open, got all he could handle from the 710th-ranked Kwiatkowski, whose collegiate title in May earned him a wild card into the US Open main draw.
In earlier action Marin Cilic, the 2014 champion and fifth seed in 2017, won his opening round match against aptly named American Tennys Sandgren 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-3. It was Cilic's first match since losing to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final last month.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made light work of Romanian Marius Copil in a routine 6-3 6-3 6-4 win for the French eighth seed.
John Isner, the highest-ranked American and 10th seed here, delivered 22 aces and was broken only once in a 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-3 victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France.
Spanish seeds had mixed results with 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta progressing to the second round while 21st seed David Ferrer lost.
He won the first set against Mikhail Kukushkin but the Kazakh qualifier was too good in the end for Ferrer, a two-time US Open semi-finalist, and won 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-1.
Kyle Edmund of Great Britain caused an upset with a 6-3 7-5 6-3 victory over Dutchman Robin Haase, the 32nd seed.
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