Just In: US Open star hits herself in the head with racket repeatedly in heartbreaking loss
Madison Keys suffered a bruising defeat at the US Open on Saturday as she blew a 5-0 lead and a match point in the decider, losing the last seven games as Qinwen Zheng stormed back to win 1-6 7-6(3) 7-5. The No. 22 seed never looked truly comfortable in the final set, even when she was a point from victory. And after losing a sixth successive game, she repeatedly hit herself in the head with her racket.
While it was an upset on paper, it wasn’t a hugely surprising result. Zheng is a former world No. 4, a Grand Slam finalist and an Olympic champion. She is only ranked outside the top 120 after an injury layoff that required elbow surgery. The Chinese star had to come through qualifying to reach the main draw here this year, but has the level and experience to go deep at the Majors.
But it was the nature of the defeat that really hurt for Keys, who later admitted that she felt “scared” on the court – a feeling she has been carrying for a while. “I feel like I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then, I mean, got really scared, like I couldn’t swing,” she explained.
“I don’t know. Tennis just feels really hard right now, so I feel like that kind of took over.”
Speaking on court, Zheng herself said that Keys played lights out in the first five games of the final set. But everything changed when the American led 5-0, and Keys said it went deeper than just trying to get to the next round.
She added: “At the end, I think she started playing better – I started playing poorly. Then I felt like I couldn’t play tennis anymore, and it just felt like it was a much bigger deal than just playing a tennis match all of a sudden.”
If things looked concerning on the outside, the 2025 Australian Open champion admitted it was even harder internally. “I just feel like I’ve kind of been struggling for a while now, and I feel like I was able to kind of play through it for a bit,” she continued.
“I’m sure everyone could kind of see that I was struggling a little bit, but inside, it felt probably even bigger than that. Some weeks are easier than others, and this week is obviously one of the harder ones just because you care so much. I’m going to have to make some sort of changes.
As for what those changes could be, the 2017 finalist in New York didn’t give any details. But she confessed that it was a long time coming. “I think it’s been something that’s been building for a while,” she said.
“I just kind of keep pushing it off and pushing it off just because that’s how the tennis world works. It’s just to the point where I actually need to do something about it.”
