US Open ATP Day Five Round-Up | Zverev battles through consecutive five-set clash, Fritz impresses as Auger-Aliassime and de Minaur among favourites to depart

From the emphatic to the shocks, the latest stanza of the men's tournament at the US Open certainly had it all as Alex de Minaur was dumped out, the No.1 seed Alexander Zverev was pushed but managed to prevail, Taylor Fritz smashed his way through and Gael Monfils had his final stand.

First to another shock though as Felix Auger-Aliassime was beaten. Karen Khachanov is often a bit of a spoiler and he proved to be so again today as he earned his first top 10 win of the year on Thursday at the US Open upsetting Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in the process.

Last year's semi-finalist now drops a load of points and struggled for sustained periods on Louis Armstrong Stadium. After winning the first set, Auger-Aliassime sprayed 30 unforced errors and faded so quickly losing out in a three-hour 16 minute affair. FAA won just 41% of points behind his second serve with the Russian winning through.

No doubt though this was hindered by physical issues that Auger-Aliassime was struggling with where he said he was seeing spots and was dizzy. “It's tough to talk about anything other than how I felt physically. After a set and a half, I just couldn't feel well and was dizzy and seeing spots and couldn't recover,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I thought maybe it would pass, but it didn't.”

“I've never felt quite like that,” Auger-Aliassime continued. “I've had cramps before. I've felt tired towards the end of matches, but in a normal way. This was a little bit abnormal, and there were no signs in the last couple of days and no signs this morning, as well. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm going to run some tests and see what comes out of it.”

Taylor Fritz on the other hand was in blockbuster mode as he managed to take down Mattia Bellucci with the loss of only two games in a nerveless statement from the American.

Fritz won in just 98 minutes at the hard court major on Thursday dropping just two games to win 6-0, 6-1, 6-1. He built on his straight sets win over Darwin Blanch earlier in the week and after not losing a game in the opening set, he continued with that emphatic nature as the match progressed. He converted eight out of 15 break points and saved all three he faced with Bellucci who pushed him in Stuttgart unable to lay a glove on him.

From emphatic to more upsets as Aussie ace Dane Sweeny shocked Lorenzo Musetti and Alex de Minaur is also out being defeated by Botic van de Zandschulp.

On his US Open debut, Sweeny defeated the 13th seed 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third round of a major for the first time. He has earned back-to-back tour level wins for the first time and what a way to do it. Musetti had struggles moving at the start of the third set and faded. He went down 3-0 and while he clawed back a break on return, Sweeny continued to surge forward.

But while there was some Aussie joy, there was also a downfall as Alex de Minaur was dumped out by Botic van de Zandschulp who shocked Carlos Alcaraz two years ago and has this reputation now as a spoiler and he managed to win 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in one of the biggest upsets of the day.

Other ties of note saw Francisco Cerundolo come from 2-1 down to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff in three 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, 2-6, 3-6. Luciano Darderi took down Dailbor Svrcina 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4. While Alexander Blockx won in four over Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

For others it was survival as Alejandro Tabilo won in four against Alexei Popyrin, Jacob Mensik too against Jurij Rodionov. While Aussie ace Tristan Schoolkate couldn't pull off the Cobolli upset losing 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 5-7.

Wins too for Ignacio Buse, Michael Zheng, Arthur Gea, Zizou Bergs and also Learner Tien. The latter ended the career of sorts of Gael Monfils at least in majors as the final player to beat the showman in a Grand Slam with Monfils already mooting that finance is next for him.

All of these big names exiting can only be a positive thing for the German, but in turn he still needed to win his match. That is what he did, although it was not the most simple of tasks as he edged out Quentin Halys 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-7(3), 6-3 in another five-set battle.

A late three-game burst at the end of the first set gave Zverev the control in the contest and he seemed to be motoring along fine. He was coming off a titanic battle in the first round where Lorenzo Sonego pushed him the distance. It seemed a similar thing could occur as the Frenchman stole a march and got back level.

Zverev broke to begin the third set but soon found himself behind as Halys boosted himself ahead. He was in dire need to conjure something up, and broke back with a tiebreak eventually in store. Zverev comfortably won that 7-3. It seemed that he would then run away with it, but Halys had other ideas. A second consecutive tiebreak cropped up following Zverev squandering three break points in the set as he was forced to play a second five-set contest on the spin.

He had the necessary tools to get over the line, breaking to go 3-2 to the good before concluding the match against the serve.