Zheng Qinwen’s US Open appeared to be over when Madison Keys built a 5-0 lead in the third set and later held match point. Instead, Zheng saved it, won the final seven games and completed a 1-6, 7-6(3), 7-5 victory over the No. 22 seed in 2 hours and 28 minutes to reach the fourth round.

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The Olympic gold medalist, who began the tournament in qualifying, has now won six straight matches in New York.

Prior to this week, Zheng hadn’t managed to win more than two matches in a row since returning from elbow surgery and had dropped as low as No. 160 in the PIF WTA Rankings before entering the US Open at No. 121. There had been glimpses of her past form, but it wasn’t until she collapsed to the Grandstand grounds in joy after the final point Saturday that she looked fully like the player she once was.

“After the surgery it was not easy. It felt like I lost a bit of my energy on the tennis court,” Zheng said in her on-court interview. “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. I want to say thanks to my team first for bringing me here. Let’s keep going.”

After losing their first WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz matchup in Washington in 2023, Zheng has now won the past two meetings against Keys. With this win, she became the first qualifier to reach the US Open women’s singles fourth round since Emma Raducanu in 2021. Raducanu went on to claim the title.

With such a long way to go until the final, it’s tough to predict whether Zheng can match that feat — especially with a potential matchup against No. 8 seed Iga Swiatek looming. But her outlook is far brighter than it was at the start of the tournament, and even more so than when she was one point away from exiting in the third round.

After slow start, dominant tiebreak brings Zheng level

Zheng’s place in the Round of 16 would’ve been hard to imagine after the first set. Keys completely dictated play, winning 20 of the final 23 points to claim the opener in just 23 minutes. 

The second set saw Keys’ level dip only slightly, while Zheng rose to the occasion. She consistently pressured Keys’ serve, generating multiple break points before finally breaking for 5-3. But Keys responded with the same calm she showed while saving five match points against Anna Bondar in the second round, breaking back for 5-4 and ultimately forcing a tiebreak.

Zheng dominated the breaker, taking six of the last seven points behind a trio of winners to force a decider.

Zheng triumphs, Keys left crushed

The story of the match is that Zheng pulled off a miraculous rally. Coming from 5-0 down in the third set is almost unheard of, and her ability to raise her level down the stretch is worthy of applause — especially on the heels of back-to-back-to-back three-setters.

But on the other side of the net, it will go down as a missed opportunity for Keys. The former Australian Open champion held match point serving at 5-1 and was a point away from reaching the fourth round at her fourth straight Slam before the match slipped from her grasp.

“I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then I just got really — I mean, I got really scared, like I couldn’t swing,” Keys said in her post-match press conference. “I don’t know. Tennis just feels really hard right now, so I feel like that kind of took over.

“At the end, I think she just started playing better; I started playing poorly. Then I felt like I couldn’t play tennis anymore, and it just was — it just felt like a much bigger deal than just playing a tennis match all of a sudden.”