Zheng Beats Keys From Match Point Down

Zheng Qinwen saved a match point and won the last seven games to stun No. 22 Madison Keys 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5 at the US Open on Saturday, reaching the fourth round as a qualifier in 2 hours and 28 minutes, per the WTA and Associated Press.

Keys led 5-0 in the third. Zheng refused to leave. Flushing Meadows got the kind of comeback clip that lives all week.

From 5-0 down to seven straight

Keys owned the opener, winning 20 of the final 23 points and wrapping the first set in 23 minutes. Zheng answered in the second by pressuring Keys' serve, breaking for 5-3, then surviving a break-back and dominating the tiebreak 7-3 after taking six of the last seven points behind a burst of winners.

The third set looked finished. Keys jumped to 5-0, then held a match point serving at 5-1. Zheng saved it. Keys' level cracked into errors and hesitation. Zheng kept holding and kept coming until she had reeled off seven games in a row for 7-5, per the WTA. Keys even slammed her racket into her head and ripped off her visor as the collapse sped up, per AP.

"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, per AP. Keys said she got "really scared" after the big lead and suddenly could not swing freely. "Tennis just feels really hard right now," she added.

Qualifier path, Swiatek next

Zheng entered New York ranked No. 121 after elbow surgery dropped her as low as No. 160 and forced her through qualifying. She is the Olympic gold medalist and a former Australian Open finalist who had not strung together more than two wins in a row since the surgery. This week she has six straight matches in New York.

She is also the first qualifier to reach the US Open women's singles Round of 16 since Emma Raducanu in 2021. After the final point she collapsed onto the Grandstand grounds in pure joy, the first time all summer she looked fully like the player who once sat inside the top five.

"After the surgery it was not easy," Zheng said on court, per the WTA. "It felt like I lost a bit of my energy on the tennis court. I've been through really tough [moments] these last three, four, five months. But we've been working really hard ... and yeah, the hard work finally paid off a bit."

Next up is No. 8 Iga Swiatek, the 2022 champion. That is a brutal reward for surviving Keys, but Zheng already proved she can dig out of a grave. For more Flushing board already on Smacktok, see Pegula beating Fernandez and Sabalenka advancing. Saturday belonged to a qualifier who would not quit.