Madison Keys suffers epic collapse in third set against Zheng Qinwen to bow out of US Open

American Madison Keys looked to be on her way to reaching the Round of 16 for her fourth straight Grand Slam, but she suffered a crushing third-set collapse and was eliminated by China's Zheng Qinwen 1-6, 7-6, 7-5 on Saturday.

Keys, the No. 22 seed on the women's side, became just the fourth seeded American player to bow out of the tournament.

After comfortably winning the first set 6-1 and losing a tiebreaker in the second set, Key sprinted out to a 5-0 lead in the third set. Serving at 5-1, Keys had a match point at 40-30. According to IBM watsonx, she had a 97 percent win probability at that point. But Qinwen fought it off, broke Keys and stormed to victory. She won the final seven games of the match and never faced another match point.

Qinwen won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics and 2024 and was a finalist at the Australian Open earlier that year. She suffered injuries and a tough run of play in 2025, and was forced to qualify for this US Open with her ranking at No. 121 entering the tournament. Qinwen won three qualifying matches, and has now won three matches in the main draw. Next up will be the winner of Iga Swiatek, whom Qinwen beat for the gold medal in Paris, and Marie Bouzkova.

Keys, 31, has been a finalist and semifinalist at the US Open, but has never won her home slam. She fought off five match points in her second-round, three-set victory over Anna Bondar, but she could not get over the line on Saturday. Her lone major championship remains the 2025 Australian Open.

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