US Open marked by major comebacks: Fritz squandered a 2-0 lead, Keys a 5-0 lead and match point
The third round of the US Open in New York produced two comebacks that will be remembered for a long time and at the same time significantly changed the balance of power in the men's and women's draws. Taylor Fritz, the ninth seed and a finalist at the 2024 tournament, was eliminated after winning the first two sets against Argentina's Francisco CerĂșndolo, while Madison Keys led Zheng Qinwen 5-0 in the deciding set and then held a match point. Neither lead proved sufficient. CerĂșndolo completed a major comeback at Arthur Ashe Stadium with a 3:6, 4:6, 6:3, 6:4, 6:4 victory, while Zheng triumphed 1:6, 7:6(3), 7:5 on the Grandstand after winning the final seven games of the match. The official US Open website and the WTA confirmed the results on September 5, and both encounters further underlined just how unpredictable this year's tournament is heading into the second week of competition.
CerĂșndolo turned around a match Fritz had under control
Fritz entered the match against CerĂșndolo as the favorite, with the experience of playing in a US Open final and the status of one of the most prominent remaining American players in the men's draw. The first two sets justified that position. The American played solidly enough behind his serve, established control from the baseline early and moved ahead 6:3, 6:4, giving the impression that another passage into the tournament's second week was very close. CerĂșndolo, the 24th seed, did not fall apart after going two sets down, but gradually raised his level and increasingly forced Fritz into longer rallies. According to the official US Open report, the Argentine then won three consecutive sets by scores of 6:3, 6:4 and 6:4 and, for the first time in the match, took complete control of the outcome.
The change did not happen with a single shot. After a convincing start, Fritz found it increasingly difficult to find his rhythm, while CerĂșndolo gained more room for his aggressive baseline game. In the third and fourth sets, the Argentine reduced the number of easy errors and began making better use of situations in which the American player was left without an advantage after the first strike. That turned a match that had looked almost decided after two sets into a physical and psychological test. In the deciding fifth set, Fritz still had opportunities to regain control, but he failed to use them. The Guardian noted in its match report that the American missed an opportunity late on to move 5:3 ahead, after which CerĂșndolo remained calmer on the key points and completed the comeback.
For Fritz, the defeat is particularly painful because of the way it happened. He arrived in New York with the ambition of repeating or surpassing his 2024 result, when he played his first Grand Slam final. He did not expend much energy in the opening two rounds of 2026: he defeated Darwin Blanch in three sets and crushed Mattia Bellucci 6:0, 6:1, 6:1. After that second round, the tournament's official website noted that Fritz had a 10-1 record on American soil since July and entered the match against CerĂșndolo with their head-to-head tied at 1-1. Everything suggested that the ninth seed would be a serious factor in the closing stages of the tournament, but a few hours later that calculation had changed completely.
A more open path in part of the men's draw
CerĂșndolo's victory was not an isolated upset. On the same day, 21-year-old Belgian Alexander Blockx eliminated sixth seed Flavio Cobolli and reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. The US Open described the result as the biggest victory of Blockx's career so far, with his run of 11 consecutive games won during the match particularly impressive. It also confirmed that CerĂșndolo and Blockx would meet in the fourth round, meaning that one of them is guaranteed to reach the quarterfinals. For the section of the draw that had contained Fritz and Cobolli, that represents a major change, because two highly seeded players disappeared in the space of only a few hours.
Such a development further increases the importance of every subsequent match in that half of the draw, although it would be wrong to speak in advance about an "easy path" for any remaining player. Grand Slam tournaments often punish exactly those kinds of assumptions, and the third-round results are the best evidence of that. CerĂșndolo must now back up his major result against a player who has just recorded the biggest victory of his career, while Blockx enters the match without the burden of favorite status. For organizers and spectators, that also means a different storyline in the closing stages of the tournament: instead of the expected continuation of established seeds' campaigns, the fourth round brings a meeting between two players who opened their path by eliminating more high-profile opponents.
Fritz's defeat also has a broader sporting context. American men's tennis has been waiting for a new Grand Slam singles champion for more than two decades, so every deep run by a home player in New York attracts additional attention. In recent seasons Fritz has been among the players who came closest to a major title, primarily through his appearance in the 2024 US Open final. His third-round elimination says nothing definitive about the long-term balance of power, but at this tournament it removes one of the players with proven experience of major matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium. At a moment when the draw had already thinned out through other surprises, that result carries more weight than an ordinary qualification for the fourth round.
Keys went from 5-0 and match point to losing seven consecutive games
If Fritz's defeat was a major comeback, the conclusion of the match between Madison Keys and Zheng Qinwen was even more dramatic. Keys, the 22nd seed and a US Open finalist in 2017, won the opening set 6:1 in just 23 minutes. According to the tournament's official report, Zheng landed only 29 percent of her first serves in that stretch, and Keys punished almost every shorter ball. In the second set, conditions became more complicated because of the wind, the American's error count increased, and Zheng managed to force a tie-break and win it 7:3. The match therefore went to a deciding set, in which Keys once again completely seized the initiative and took a 5-0 lead.
It seemed only a matter of time before she finished the match. Zheng first held serve for 1:5, and Keys then reached match point on her own serve. According to the official US Open report, the American sent a backhand into the net on that point, after which the Chinese player broke serve and stayed in the match. That single point completely changed the atmosphere. Keys became increasingly tense, Zheng increasingly determined, and a gap that only a few minutes earlier had appeared insurmountable began disappearing game by game.
From 0:5 down, Zheng won seven consecutive games and completed the match 7:5 in the third set. The WTA states that the entire encounter lasted two hours and 28 minutes and that the Chinese player fell to the court in delight after the final point. The particular significance of her comeback comes from the fact that she arrived in New York through qualifying after a period marked by surgery on her right elbow. The former world No. 4 had fallen to No. 121 in the WTA rankings before the US Open, and after three wins in qualifying and three in the main draw she put together six consecutive victories. The WTA also highlighted that Zheng became the first qualifier to reach the women's US Open fourth round since Emma Raducanu in 2021.
Zheng returned to the big stage after surgery
For Zheng, the victory over Keys has significance that goes beyond one exceptional comeback. The Paris 2024 Olympic champion and former Australian Open finalist had spent recent months trying to re-establish consistency after her elbow problems. According to the WTA, after returning following surgery she had been unable to string together more than two victories, while her ranking fell as low as No. 160 before she arrived in New York as the world No. 121. That is precisely why six consecutive victories, including qualifying, represent her most convincing sign yet of a return to the level at which she can threaten the best players in the world.
After the match, Zheng spoke on court about the difficult months following surgery and emphasized the work of her team, while the official WTA report relayed her message that the hard work had finally begun to pay off. That context also explains the emotion after the final point. This was not only about saving a match point or coming back from 0:5, but about confirmation that her game can once again hold up under the greatest pressure. In the next round she will face Iga ĆwiÄ
tek, the 2022 US Open champion, who advanced against Marie BouzkovĂĄ after two tie-breaks. That match will immediately show how ready Zheng is to turn a dramatic comeback into a deeper run at the tournament.
Their head-to-head record also provides an interesting framework for the matchup. The official US Open website states that ĆwiÄ
tek leads Zheng 7-1, but the Chinese player's only victory came on a particularly big stage: in the semifinals of the 2024 Olympic tournament in Paris, on the clay of Roland Garros, on her way to the gold medal. The hard court in New York and the different rhythm of the US Open present a new situation, but their previous record shows that Zheng already has experience of defeating the Pole when the stakes were exceptionally high. After what she did against Keys, no result in the fourth round can any longer be viewed as predetermined.
Irony for Keys: two days earlier she was the one who came back from the brink of defeat
The outcome is particularly striking for Keys because of what happened to her only two days earlier. In the second round against Anna Bondar, she had been in almost the opposite role: she trailed 5:2 in the deciding set and saved five match points before winning 5:7, 6:4, 7:6(5). The US Open ranked that encounter among the biggest comebacks of the tournament to that point, and Keys won the final seven points of the deciding tie-break. Against Zheng, the picture was reversed. This time she was one step away from victory, and her opponent found a way to stay in the match.
Those two matches within a span of 48 hours illustrate well how quickly psychological dynamics can change at a Grand Slam. Against Bondar, Keys proved that a match can be recovered even when it appears lost, but against Zheng she experienced the same lesson from the other side of the net. The result does not erase her extensive experience in New York: the tournament's official website states that Keys has 35 US Open victories, which is among the highest totals for active American players. Still, for the 2026 draw, only the fact matters that another seed and former finalist was eliminated before the second week.
The women's draw lost several more big names
Keys was not the only prominent player whose campaign ended on September 5. Anastasia Potapova eliminated tenth seed Amanda Anisimova, last year's US Open finalist, and reached the fourth round against Mirra Andreeva. The tournament's official website states that Andreeva defeated Nikola BartĆŻĆkovĂĄ 6:2, 7:6(5) and reached the second week of the US Open for the first time in her career. Coco Gauff, the 2023 champion, advanced with a 6:3, 6:4 victory over Cristina BucÈa. At the same time, ĆwiÄ
tek survived a very demanding match against BouzkovĂĄ, meaning that some of the favorites remained in the tournament despite the wave of upsets.
That is important when assessing the broader picture. The eliminations of Keys and Anisimova do not mean that the women's draw has been left without the main title contenders, but they remove two players with experience of the closing stages on the biggest stage. On the other hand, Zheng's return to the fourth round introduces an opponent whose current ranking does not adequately describe her, while Potapova gets another opportunity for the best Grand Slam result of her career. Gauff, ĆwiÄ
tek and Andreeva continue on, but their potential paths now include opponents who have already shown that they can survive matches in which they were far from the role of favorite.
A day that reminded everyone how fragile a tennis result can be
The most important connection between Fritz's and Keys's defeats is not only the fact that both were playing in front of a home crowd, but the way a sense of control can collapse within a few games. Fritz had a two-set lead in a format in which he needed only one more. Keys was even closer: she led 5-0 in the final set and had match point on her own serve. In both cases, their opponents did not need a miraculous shot, but simply stayed in the match long enough for the balance of power to begin changing. CerĂșndolo built his comeback across three sets, Zheng across seven consecutive games.
For the US Open, that means the second week begins with an additional dose of uncertainty. CerĂșndolo and Blockx now have a direct path against each other toward the quarterfinals, while Zheng, after six consecutive victories, moves on to face ĆwiÄ
tek. At the same time, Gauff and Andreeva are among the players who avoided the chaos of the third round, while the night program on September 5 continued to provide new answers about the rest of the draw. What is already certain is that two results from the day session became two of the tournament's key stories: Fritz surrendered a 2-0 lead in sets, while Keys lost an advantage that had looked almost insurmountable late in the match. In a single day, New York received a powerful reminder that at a Grand Slam even the biggest lead is not the same thing as a finished match.
Sources:
- US Open - official result and report of the Taylor Fritz - Francisco CerĂșndolo match (link)
- US Open - official report of the Zheng Qinwen - Madison Keys match and context of their path through the tournament (link)
- WTA - information on Zheng's return after surgery, ranking, winning streak and progress from qualifying to the fourth round (link)
- US Open - report on Alexander Blockx's victory over Flavio Cobolli and confirmation of the Blockx - CerĂșndolo fourth-round matchup (link)
- US Open - report on Mirra Andreeva's progress to the fourth round and context of Amanda Anisimova's defeat (link)
- The Guardian - report from the Fritz - CerĂșndolo match and details of the closing stages of the fifth set (link)
- The Guardian - overview of seventh-day results, including Iga ĆwiÄ
tek's progress and other changes in the women's draw (link)