The German will face Ben Shelton on Sunday after the American later defeated Frances Tiafoe. It is Zverev’s sixth major final and his second at Flushing Meadows, six years after he lost the 2020 championship match.
Zverev, 29, has now reached Grand Slam finals on three different surfaces in the same season — Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open — becoming only the 12th man since 1978 to do so.
He won Roland Garros earlier this year for his first major title and then reached the Wimbledon final. His 2026 Grand Slam record stands at 24-2. The win also drew him level with Jannik Sinner at the top of the ATP Race to Turin on 7,950 points.
The match lasted two hours and 56 minutes. Zverev broke for 5-3 in the first set and built a set-and-a-break lead in the second before Khachanov fought back. Serving at 4-5, 15-30, Zverev produced three successive winners to hold.
He then overturned a 3-5 deficit in a 14-minute second-set tie-break, winning a 34-shot rally on set point. In the third-set breaker he saved two set points from 4-6 before closing out the match.
Zverev had been two points from defeat in the first round and needed five sets in the second, but he has not dropped a set since, beating Alejandro Tabilo, Luciano Darderi, Botic van de Zandschulp and now Khachanov.
He leads Khachanov 7-3 in their head-to-head. Despite the loss, Khachanov rises 24 places to No. 26 in the live rankings.
Sunday’s final offers a record $5.5 million to the champion. Zverev will attempt to add a second major title four months after his first, against a home favourite chasing America’s first men’s Slam since 2003.