Back from the brink with a bang

From the brink of elimination to a career-defining victory, Zheng Qinwen brought her fading US Open campaign back from the dead with an epic comeback win over home favorite Madison Keys.

Down 0-5 in the deciding set facing a major-champion opponent, with the majority of the crowd cheering against her, Zheng refused to let go, even when almost everyone watching on-site on Saturday night, or on TV at home on early Sunday morning, thought the match was over.

No one could have imagined that an instant classic in the history of major tennis was in the making, nor did Zheng herself see it coming in such a spectacular way.

With no clue at all in her stuttering form as Keys built an insurmountable 5-0 lead, Zheng stepped up her game out of nowhere though, as she rallied back to win the next seven games in a row to stun the 2025 Australian Open winner 1-6,7-6 (3), 7-5 in two hours and 28 minutes on the Grandstand Court.

It was Zheng's sixth straight victory at this year's US Open, including three qualifying wins, and the first time this season that she's won three main-draw matches in a row at any tournament, signifying a resurgence of her form during a tough year.

After eventually clinching the match point, Zheng, who won China's first Olympic singles gold medal at Paris 2024, attributed the improbable comeback to her strength of resilience.

"I just told myself, keep holding every single point, never give up, stay there. Somehow, little by little, it just happened," Zheng said of her huge upset of the 22nd-ranked seed Keys during her post-match interview.

"Honestly, this is the first time in my career I've turned it around from 0-5. I was like, 'Oh my god! I can't let her win 6-0. Otherwise, it will be a huge humiliation.' So I tried to focus on only the next point and fought back one shot after another.

"It was a very tough game, and in that moment, I showed no emotion because I know it's never the end until the end," said Zheng, who will next challenge six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek in a rematch of their thrilling Paris Olympic semifinal.

Zheng put up a gutsy fight during the semi showdown in Paris to snap Swiatek's 25-match winning streak at Roland Garros on the Pole star's favorite surface and moved on to claim the history-making Olympic gold medal.

Zheng will now need to show the same tenacity again as she looks to stage another upset win against the odds to energize her arduous recovery from surgery on her right elbow that sidelined her for six months last year.

The long injury layoff forced her to skip the season-opening Australian Open, took a toll on her consistency and dragged her ranking to No 160 in June, turning the former top-10 star into an underdog at elite tournaments.

"After the surgery, it was not easy. I feel like I lost a bit of energy on the tennis court and have been through a really tough three, four or five months," said the 23-year-old native of Hubei province, who's won four career singles titles on the WTA Tour since 2023.

"I think that was the worst period of my career since I entered the pros.

"But luckily, thanks to my team, we've been working really hard at the IMG Academy after losing the first qualifier in Toronto (at the National Bank Open), and the hard work is paying off."

Dramatic turn

Zheng's form at the beginning of Saturday's clash with Keys did little to suggest a dramatic turn of fortune was on the cards as she was dominated by the world No 24 throughout the first set, losing 1-6 in just 23 minutes.

The second set saw Keys' level dip slightly, while Zheng rose to the occasion by staying aggressive on the baseline attacking Keys' serve, before finally breaking it to take the set to the tiebreak, where Zheng maintained her intensity to win six of the last seven points to force a decider.

Then came the rarely-before-seen comeback when Zheng, trailing 0-5 in the last set, suddenly raised her level to turn it around by winning the next seven games.

Keys exhibited signs of frustration, visibly hitting her head with her racket five times in a row after conceding her last service game to give Zheng a 6-5 lead.

"I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then I just got really scared, like I couldn't swing," Keys confessed in her post-match news 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 and I started playing poorly.

"Then I felt like I couldn't play tennis anymore, and it just felt like a much bigger deal than just playing a tennis match all of a sudden," said Keys, who reached the US Open final in 2017.

Zheng's career-best result in New York was reaching the quarterfinals, achieved back-to-back in 2023 and 2024, with the Chinese star sitting out last year due to her recovery from the surgery.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova also heaped praise on Zheng's resilient performance after commentating on the match on Sky Sports.

"I haven't seen that in a long time in a major, especially not here, 5-0," said the Czech-American great, who won 59 Grand Slam titles, including 18 in singles.

"With Keys leading 5-0 up, you think the match is over; we thought the match was over, but Qinwen Zheng, as I said, you never run out of time in tennis, and she pulled it all the way back. Well done!"