NEW YORK ― Two American contenders on the ladies' side found the third round to be tough going as 2025 finalist Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys both made early exits from the US Open on Saturday, Sept. 5.
Keys, the No. 22 seed, blew a 5-0 lead in the third set to Qinwen Zheng, after being firmly in command for the majority of the match, storming back to win seven straight games to advance 1-6 7-6(3) 7-5.
Keys won a three-set match in the previous round against Anna Bondar in a match tiebreaker when she fought off five match points. Two days later came a collapse that was as out-of-nowhere as that comeback.
But things started to turn for Zheng, the 2024 Olympic Gold medallist in Paris, when she served in the sixth game of the set. She blitzed
through that game, then systematically took apart Keys, the 2017 US Open finalist, including saving a match point on Keys' next service game.
The frustration clearly got to Keys as her meltdown continued, hitting herself on the head with her racket several times.
"I always believe, especially when I was down 4-5, it was a very tough game, and in that moment, I showed no emotion because I know it’s never the end until the end,” Zheng said.
"Brave is the word today. I’m just super happy to have won this match. It’s like, wow. What can I say? Wow.”
In the tournament's biggest comeback, Zheng seems fully recovered from elbow surgery last summer and is charging toward becoming one of the tour's top players again, as she was ranked as high as No. 4 at the time of her injury.
Iga Świątek or Marie Bouzková awaits Zheng in the fourth round.
2025 Runner-up Amanda Anisimova ousted
Amanda Anisimova, who shot up the rankings after an impressive 2025, making both the finals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, continued her slide this year, losing to No. 24 seed Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 7-5.
Potapova took advantage of Anisimova's errors, frustrating the 25-year-old originally from New Jersey. Anisimova finished with 46 unforced errors, most of those coming from forehands that weakly hit the net or sailed harmlessly out of play. Anisimova was also awful on break-chance opportunities, missing 13 of 16 of those chances.
After starting the year ranked No. 3, Anisimova reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, but in the last three Grand Slams failed to make it past the first week.
Potapova will take on either French Open champion Mirra Andreeva or Nikola Bartůňková in the fourth round.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Madison Keys, Amanda Anisimova make early exits in US Open third round
