Keys had taken the opening set in 25 minutes for the loss of one game. She was broken once in the second, at 4-3, broke straight back and lost the tiebreak 7-3. Then she went 5-0 up in the third.<\/p>\n
Zheng held for 5-1. Keys served for the match at 5-1 and lost it, having held a match point. Zheng held again from deuce. Keys served for it a second time at 5-3 and lost it to 15. Zheng held for 5-4, broke again at 5-5, and served out the match at the first opportunity.<\/p>\n
The Chinise is is the first qualifier to reach the second week of the US Open since Emma Raducanu, who won the trophy in 2021<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Keys: Two days, two deciding sets, opposite outcomes<\/p>\n
The symmetry with her previous match is almost exact. On Thursday, Keys was 2-5 down in the deciding set against Anna Bondar and saved five match points to win 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (5). On Saturday she led 5-0 and lost. The 2025 Australian Open champion and 2017 runner-up here had also come through 7-5, 6-4 against 19-year-old Alina Korneeva in the first round, saving a match point in that one too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to say Madison played amazing. I don\u2019t feel like she got up to 5-0 because I played so bad, I just think she played amazing,\u201d Qinwen Zheng said afterwards. \u201cI kept telling myself, keep holding every single point. Never give up. Stay there. And somehow little by little it just happened. Finally one time a bit of luck is on my side.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had noticed the symmetry too. \u201cI know in the last match she also did that, turned the match around. It\u2019s not bad, I also did that once as well,\u201d Zheng said. \u201cThis is the first time I turned it around from 0-5. Usually before it\u2019s always 1-5 or 2-5. It was a very dramatic match for me, but we both showed really strong tennis. Thank you to the crowd who came to support us today. Doesn\u2019t matter if you supported Madi or me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether she is close to her best again, she went back to the elbow. \u201cAfter the surgery wasn\u2019t easy. It felt like I lost my energy on the tennis court. I\u2019ve been through really tough times these three, four, five months,\u201d Zheng said. \u201cLuckily, thanks to my team, we\u2019ve been working really hard at the IMG Academy after Toronto. The hard work pays off finally a bit. I never give up during the match. That\u2019s the positive thing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zheng\u2019s route back has been longer than her ranking suggests. The 2024 Australian Open finalist and Olympic champion had elbow surgery in July 2025, and this is her first second week at a Grand Slam in more than a year. She came into this tournament through qualifying, and has now won five matches in New York.<\/p>\n
She beat Russian qualifier Kristina Liutova 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 in the opening rounds, dropping the first set in both, as she did again here.<\/p>\n
US Open 2026, WOmen\u2019s singles, round 3<\/p>\n
A. Sabalenka [1] d. K. Rakhimova: 6-3, 6-4
T. Townsend d. D. Shnaider [15]: 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-3
M. Kostyuk [11] d. E. Alexandrova [18]: 6-3, 6-2
L. Noskova [6] d. A. Li [29]: 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-2
J. Pegula [3] d. L. Fernandez [31]: 1-6, 6-4, 6-3
S. Cirstea [16] d. J. Paolini [19]: 6-3, 6-3
A. Kalinskaya [21] d. E. Svitolina [9]: 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
E. Navarro [26] d. K. Muchova [7]: 6-3, 7-5
M. Andreeva [5] vs N. Bartunkova \u2013 not played
A. Potapova [24] vs A. Anisimova [10]: 6-2, 7-5
I. Jovic [14] vs A. Eala [17] \u2013 not played
C. Bucsa vs C. Gauff [4] \u2013 not played
I. Swiatek [8] vs M. Bouzkova [25] \u2013 not played
Q. Zheng (Q) d. M. Keys [22] \u2013 1-6, 7-6(3), 7-5
N. Osaka [13] vs E. Mertens [23] \u2013 not played
Y. Starodubtseva vs E. Rybakina [2] \u2013 not played<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keys had taken the opening set in 25 minutes for the loss of one game. She was broken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-881266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}