{"id":109883,"date":"2025-08-25T22:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T22:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/109883\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T22:29:08","slug":"australian-open-champion-madison-keys-is-upset-in-us-opens-first-round-by-mexicos-renata-zarazua-of-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/109883\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open champion Madison Keys is upset in US Open\u2019s first round by Mexico\u2019s Renata Zarazua of Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New York
\n AP
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Australian Open champion Madison Keys<\/a> was undone by 89 unforced errors and was upset in the first round of the U.S. Open<\/a> 6-7 (10), 7-6 (3), 7-5 by Mexico\u2019s Renata Zarazua on Monday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The sixth-seeded Keys, who was the runner-up at Flushing Meadows in 2017, made so many mistakes, including 14 double-faults, that Zarazua needed to produce just eight winners to earn the biggest victory of her career.\n <\/p>\n

\n The 82nd-ranked Zarazua had lost in either the first or second round in all eight of her previous Grand Slam appearances.\n <\/p>\n

\n Keys earned her first major championship at Melbourne Park in January, defeating No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n In addition to her run to the final in New York eight years ago before losing to good friend Sloane Stephens, Keys also was a semifinalist at the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2023.\n <\/p>\n

\n But with her left thigh heavily taped Monday, the big-hitting Keys struggled for stretches in Arthur Ashe Stadium against the 5-foot-3 Zarazua, who came into the day with a 0-6 record against opponents ranked in the top 10.\n <\/p>\n

\"Unseeded<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m a little bit small in height, so coming in here, it was like: \u2018Oh, my God. This is huge,\u201d Zarazua said about the largest stadium in Grand Slam tennis, which holds nearly 24,000 spectators.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen I retire, I\u2019m going to be really happy about it,\u201d Zarazua said, \u201cso I was like, \u2018Just enjoy it.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n She certainly did.\n <\/p>\n

\n When the match ended with Keys missing yet another forehand, Zarazua smiled as wide as possible, held her racket atop her head as she began walking forward for a handshake, then placed a hand over her face.\n <\/p>\n

\n This one certainly was memorable, in part because it did not come easily \u2014 even though Keys kept having problems and Zarazua kept moving ahead across the 3 hours, 10 minutes of action.\n <\/p>\n

\n The trouble for Zarazua was that she had a hard time closing the deal.\n <\/p>\n

\n She went up 4-2 in the first set, then was a point from owning it five times, but couldn\u2019t convert any of those opportunities. Eventually, Keys converted her third set point.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the second set, Zarazua fell behind 3-0, then took five games in a row to lead 5-3. She trailed 6-5 after another run by Keys, but this time came through in the tiebreaker to force a third set.\n <\/p>\n

\n Zarazua led in the decider and served for the win at 5-3, but Keys broke there and then held for 5-all.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the end, though, Zarazua took the last two games.\n <\/p>\n

\n While Keys was one of 25 American players in the women\u2019s singles draw at their home Grand Slam tournament, Zarazua is Mexico\u2019s lone entrant in the bracket.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s a country that we don\u2019t have many tennis players, as you can see,\u201d Zarazua said. \u201cWe just try to give our best. But definitely, I could hear some Mexicans cheering, so that was very nice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link New York AP \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Australian Open champion Madison Keys was undone by 89 unforced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-109883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}