French tennis player Quentin Halys is set to face top seed Alexander Zverev in the second round of the US Open, a marquee matchup that has drawn renewed attention to the 29-year-old’s career and current form heading into the fall stretch of the ATP season. Here are 10 things to know about Halys ahead of the match.
- He currently ranks No. 52 in the world. As of Aug. 31, 2026, Halys sits at No. 52 in the ATP singles rankings, a slight dip from his position of No. 46, the career-high mark he reached on June 30, 2025. Halys has climbed steadily throughout the current season, moving up from a ranking of No. 95 back in late June 2026 to his current position within a matter of months.
- He was born and raised in Bondy, France. Halys was born Oct. 26, 1996, in Bondy, a suburb northeast of Paris that has also produced other notable French athletes. He now resides in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, and turned professional in 2012 at age 15.
- He stands 6-foot-3 and plays a right-handed, two-handed backhand game. Halys, listed at 191 centimeters, or roughly 6 feet 3 inches, and around 187 pounds, plays right-handed with a two-handed backhand, a physical profile that has helped him develop a strong serve-based game over the course of his career.
- He has won one ATP Tour singles title and one doubles title. Halys claimed his lone ATP Tour singles championship at the 2022 Play In Challenger event, defeating Ricardas Berankis in a three-set final, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, after having eliminated then-defending champion Zizou Bergs in the quarterfinals. Halys has also reached the finals of other ATP Tour events without winning the title, including a runner-up finish at the 2024 Swiss Open Gstaad, where he lost to Matteo Berrettini, 6-3, 6-1.
- His deepest Grand Slam singles run has come at Wimbledon and the French Open. Halys has reached the third round at both the French Open, in 2025 and again in 2026, and at Wimbledon, in 2023 and 2024. His results at the Australian Open have been more modest, reaching the second round in 2016, 2024, 2025 and 2026, while the US Open has proven to be his most difficult major, with Halys having been eliminated in the first round in each of his six prior appearances there before this year’s tournament.
- He is also an accomplished doubles player. Beyond his singles career, Halys has built a respectable doubles résumé, reaching a career-high doubles ranking of No. 51 on Aug. 24, 2026, matching his current position in that discipline. His best Grand Slam doubles result came this year at the French Open, where he advanced to the semifinals, a significant improvement over his previous best doubles showing at a major, a second-round finish at the 2024 Australian Open.
- He won a junior Grand Slam title partnering current top player Benjamin Bonzi. As a junior, Halys reached four Grand Slam finals, three in doubles and one in singles, winning the 2014 French Open junior doubles title alongside Benjamin Bonzi, who has since developed into one of France’s top-ranked professional players. Halys also reached a career-high combined junior ranking, spanning both singles and doubles, of world No. 3 on March 31, 2014.
- He has had a productive 2026 season overall. Halys has played 37 matches this season, ranking among the tour leaders in aces with 412, placing him 11th on tour in that category. He also ranks 23rd on tour in second-serve points won, with 647, and 36th in total points won, with 3,119, reflecting a season built heavily around his serve.
- His upcoming second-round US Open matchup against Alexander Zverev represents one of the biggest challenges of his career. Zverev, the tournament’s top seed, presents a formidable test for Halys, who will need to rely heavily on his serve-based game to compete with one of the sport’s most consistent players over the course of a best-of-five-set match. The matchup is scheduled to be played during the tournament’s second round, with Halys looking to advance past a major second-round appearance for just the fourth time in his career at a Grand Slam event.
- He is coached by Olivier Malcor, with past guidance from Nicolas Devilder. Halys currently works with coach Olivier Malcor, having previously been guided in part by Nicolas Devilder, a former professional player himself, as part of his coaching setup over the years. Halys has accumulated career prize money of more than $5.7 million over the course of his professional career, which began in 2012.
Halys’s path to the second round at this year’s US Open followed a first-round victory that extended his tournament to a matchup against the world’s top seed, a significant test given the gap in overall ranking and Grand Slam pedigree between the two players. Zverev, a former world No. 1 and multiple-time Grand Slam finalist, enters the tournament as one of the favorites in the men’s draw, making Thursday’s matchup a considerable underdog opportunity for the Frenchman.
Halys’s career has been marked by a steady, if unspectacular, rise through the ATP rankings, built primarily on strong results at the Challenger Tour level, where he has won seven singles titles and seven doubles titles, alongside more sporadic breakthroughs at the main ATP Tour level. His current form, reflected in his climb from outside the top 90 in June to his present ranking near the top 50, suggests a player entering a competitive peak as he heads into the latter stages of what has become one of the more durable careers among his generation of French tennis players.
Should Halys manage to upset Zverev, it would mark the most significant win of his career to date against a top-seeded opponent at a Grand Slam event, and would push him into new territory at the US Open, a tournament that has historically proven to be his most difficult major championship. Regardless of the outcome, Thursday’s matchup offers Halys a high-profile platform to showcase the aggressive, serve-oriented game that has fueled his rise up the rankings throughout the 2026 season.
