NEW YORK (AP) — Zheng Qinwen was on her back with her arms in the air, celebrating a U.S. Open victory maybe only she believed was possible.
Madison Keys fought off tears as she tried to explain how Zheng, way down and all but out, somehow got it.
Zheng, the Olympic gold medalist, extended her return to the U.S. Open on Saturday with a spectacular and stunning rally, winning the final seven games to eliminate No. 22 Keys 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5.
“I feel like
I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then I just got really — I mean, got really scared, like I couldn’t swing,” Keys said. “I don’t know. Tennis just feels really hard right now, so I feel like that kind of took over.”
No. 9 Taylor Fritz also went out in a shocker, blowing a two-set lead after falling to No. 24 Francisco Cerundolo 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Amanda Anisimova, like Fritz and Keys a past runner-up at the U.S. Open, also was knocked out when the No. 10 seed lost to No. 24 Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 7-5.
Keys won a three-set match in the previous round 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.
The 2017 runner-up rebounded after losing the second-set tiebreaker to charge out to 5-0 lead. Zheng held but Keys had a match point while serving at 5-1, and once she couldn't convert that, the turnaround was on, with Keys at one point banging her racket into her head repeatedly and pulling off her visor in disgust.
“I’m just telling myself keep holding every single point, never give up, stay there and somehow little by little it just happened,” Zheng said.
She won the gold medal for China at the 2024 Olympics after reaching the Australian Open final that year, and has been ranked as high as No. 4. But after elbow surgery, she is down to No. 121 and had to go through qualifying just to make the main draw.
“The hard work pays off,” Zheng said.
Her victory set up the potential for a big day for top Asian women at the U.S. Open. Naomi Osaka, the two-time champion from Japan, was in action against No. 23 Elise Mertens on Saturday night, while No. 17 Alex Eala from the Philippines faced 14th-seeded American Iva Jovic in a matchup of promising young players.
Coco Gauff, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, was set to play a third-round match against Cristina Bucsa, with the winner advancing to face the Eala-Jovic winner in the round of 16.
Keys, who won the 2025 Australian Open for her lone Grand Slam title, said she was going to have to make some unspecified changes she has been putting off.
“I think she started playing better; I started playing poorly,” Keys said. “Then I felt like I couldn’t play tennis anymore, and it just felt like it was a much bigger deal than just playing a tennis match all of a sudden.”
Fritz stormed through his first two rounds in straight sets and there was no hint of trouble when he broke Cerundolo to open the third set. But Cerundolo broke right back and started to feel more comfortable in his first time playing in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I think fourth and fifth I played a really good tennis that I wasn’t finding that tennis in the previous sets and the previous rounds,” the Argentine said.
Anisimova missed repeated chances by converting just 3 of 16 break-point chances (19%). Potapova, a 25-year-old who was born in Russia but now represents Austria, went 6 for 8 and matched her best showing in a Grand Slam tournament by reaching the fourth round.
Anisimova went to the final at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2025, falling to Aryna Sabalenka in Flushing Meadows. But after reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the American was eliminated in the third round of the last three majors this year.
Potapova will play No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva, the French Open champion.
Top-seeded man Alexander Zverev, who had to win five-setters in the first two rounds, faced No. 25 seed Alejandro Tabilo in a night match.
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