Madison Keys was one point from the fourth round of the US Open. Leading 5-0 in the deciding set, serving at 5-1, the American 22nd seed caught her ball toss, reset, and then pushed a backhand redirect down the line into the net. She would not win another game. Zheng Qinwen, a qualifier ranked No. 121 in the world, took the last seven games to win 1-6, 7-6(3), 7-5 in two hours and 28 minutes on Friday, one of the most improbable comebacks of the 2026 championships.
“Finally, one time the luck was on my side, because all these three or four months I’ve been suffering a lot,” Zheng said afterwards. It was the sentence of a player who has spent a year being punished by her own body, and who has now reached the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time since the summer of 2025.
From 0-5 to embarrassment avoided
The match did not look like a contest for a set and a half. Keys, the 2017 US Open finalist and 2025 Australian Open champion, hit through Zheng in the opener, taking it 6-1. Zheng dragged herself level by winning six of the last seven points in the second-set tie-break, three of them with clean winners, but Keys reasserted control immediately, racing to a 5-0 lead in the third.
Zheng’s stated goal at that point was not victory. “When I was 0-5 behind, I was thinking that I didn’t want her to give me a 6-0 in the third set, because I thought it was a very embarrassing score for me,” she said. “Then suddenly, after I won the first game in the third set, I saw there was maybe some doubt… and she wasn’t as clean as before.”
She held for 5-1. She saved the match point. She broke. She held. She broke again. Keys served for the match twice and won neither game, and the swing of momentum was total: from one point from the fourth round to a straight run of seven games conceded.
Keys was candid about the collapse. “I got really scared, like I couldn’t swing,” she said. “Tennis just feels really hard right now. At the end, I think she just started playing better; I started playing poorly.” There was a bitter symmetry to it — two days earlier, Keys had saved five match points to beat Anna Bondar 5-7 6-4 7-6 in the second round.
The long road back from elbow surgery
The context is what makes the result more than a scoreline. Zheng was ranked No. 4 in the world in 2024, when she won Olympic gold in Paris and reached the Australian Open final. Right elbow surgery in July 2025 took the rest of that season and much of this one. Her ranking slid as far as No. 160. She won only four of 12 matches between Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows.
She arrived in New York needing to play qualifying — three matches before the main draw even began. She has now won six consecutive matches at the tournament, and her live ranking has climbed back towards the top 80.
“After the surgery it was not easy,” she said. “It felt like I lost a bit of my energy on the tennis court. The hard work finally paid off a bit.”
Her assessment of the turnaround was less about tactics than attention: “This also gives me a lesson that in a tennis match, you always have to be there. You just need to concentrate on every single point for as long as you can.”
What it means from here
Zheng is the first qualifier to reach the fourth round of the US Open women’s singles since Emma Raducanu in 2021 — and Raducanu, of course, did not stop there. The comparison is flattering rather than predictive, but it captures how rare this route is at a tournament where the main draw is 128 players deep and qualifiers arrive already three matches into their legs.
The reward is severe: Iga Swiatek, the No. 8 seed and the 2022 champion here. Zheng leads their head-to-head 2-1, having lost their first meeting in Washington in 2023, but she has not faced a player of that quality since her ranking collapsed.
The wider significance is simpler. Zheng’s 2026 has been a study in a top-five player trying to rebuild an arm, a serve and a reputation at the same time. Against Keys she was outplayed for 90 minutes and won anyway — which, for a player rebuilding, may be the more valuable data point.
- Zheng Qinwen (Q) bt Madison Keys (22) 1-6 7-6(3) 7-5
- Keys led 5-0 in the third set and served for the match twice
- Zheng won the final seven games and saved one match point at 5-1
- Next: Zheng v Iga Swiatek (8), fourth round
Sources: [WTA](https://www.wtatennis.com/news/4572496/zheng-saves-match-point-rallies-from-5-0-down-in-third-set-to-stun-keys-at-us-open), [Tennis Majors](https://www.tennismajors.com/us-open-news/un-be-lie-vable-from-0-5-and-a-match-point-down-zheng-wins-the-last-seven-games-860331.html), [NBC Sports](https://www.nbcsports.com/tennis/news/zheng-qinwen-stuns-madison-keys-with-a-spectacular-rally-at-the-us-open-and-anisimova-also-loses), [Tennis Up To Date](https://tennisuptodate.com/wta/finally-one-time-the-luck-was-on-my-side-qinwen-zheng-reacts-after-stunning-comeback-against-madison-keys)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
758 articles published
