Zheng Qinwen's improbable run at the US Open

NEW YORK -- Two days after a dazzling comeback over Madison Keys, Zheng Qinwen found herself trailing 0-5 after just 20 minutes in the opening set against Iga Swiatek in the US Open fourth round. But this scoreline -- this position with her back against the wall -- is where Zheng thrives. Zheng clawed her way back in the first set, winning game after game, staving off three set points and winning 12 of the final 15 points to somehow take the early lead. It marked her second straight match, and set, in which she had rallied back from 5-0 down and won seven straight games. Swiatek, the 2022 champion and former world No. 1, recovered -- briefly, anyway -- in the second set before Zheng earned the first break to go up 4-3. She never looked back, winning the final four games and earning the 7-5, 6-3 victory in front of a stunned afternoon crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Following the last point, a backhand unforced error from Swiatek, Zheng fell to the ground on her back with her feet flailing in the air and her arms outstretched in celebration. When she sat up, a wide smile was visible from every angle in Ashe. She had become the fourth women's qualifier in the Open Era to reach the quarters at the US Open, and surpassed Li Na for most quarterfinal appearances at the Slam by any Chinese player in history, with three. And, the latest improbable win proved to her that after a challenging 14-month stretch where she underwent elbow surgery, illness and a loss of form that saw her ranking plummet, she was officially back. "I'm just really happy to win this match because it's not easy," Zheng told the crowd. "And it's been awhile [since I] beat a top-10 player. I just really, really appreciated this win for me." When Zheng reached the quarterfinals at the US Open in 2023, it felt almost inevitable that she would be a staple in the later stages of Slams for years to come. And when she reached the final at the 2024 Australian Open, just four months later, her status at the top of the game was officially sealed. By the end of the season, she had made yet another quarterfinal appearance in New York, reached the final at the year-end tour championships and claimed two WTA titles. Most impressive of all, she became the Olympic singles champion at Roland Garros behind a shocking semifinals win over Swiatek, the overwhelming favorite, and a straight-set victory over Donna Vekic in the gold-medal match. She made the quarterfinals for the first time at the French Open in 2025 and reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 in June. But the following month she revealed she had been dealing with lingering pain in her elbow and was undergoing surgery. Zheng returned to the tour at the end of September to play in the China Open but it was ultimately too soon. She retired from her third-round match, due to her elbow, and didn't play again in 2025. Her absence continued into 2026 and she missed the Australian Open. She returned in February but it hasn't exactly been a straight line back to the top of the game. Zheng made the third round in her first tournament back in Qatar and then had to withdraw from Dubai, her next event, with illness. She made the fourth round in Miami, but suffered opening-round losses at both the French Open and Wimbledon. She fell out of the top 100. At the Canadian Open in August, she lost in the first round of qualifying. The disappointment resulted in a tough meeting with her coach. "I told him like this, 'I have all the pieces, in my tennis, I have all the pieces there. It's just I didn't put them together yet. Or I didn't find a way to put them together. But all the pieces are there,'" Zheng remembered on Monday. "Then so he told me, 'Okay, let's go to practice really hard to help you put all the pieces [together]. And then, you will show me later if you really got all the pieces.'" They decided she would skip Cincinnati, where she also would need to qualify, in order to focus on New York. She was struggling to accept that she had to play qualifying at the US Open, after her previous level and success, and explained earlier this week that she didn't feel she had the right energy level or physical condition and wanted to give herself a chance to regroup, physically and mentally. Zheng and her team went to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida and locked in. Zheng called it the "toughest" training block she had ever had with her coach. The strategy worked. After winning three matches in qualifying -- and falling to the floor in celebration after punching her ticket to the main draw following a three-set victory -- Zheng has had to fight for every win. Prior to Monday's victory over Swiatek, she had needed deciding sets in all of her main draw matches. Against Keys on Saturday, she lost the first set, 6-1. But raised her level and intensity to force -- and win -- a second-set tiebreak. Zheng was all but out in the deciding set however, before storming her way back and winning the final seven games. Keys faulted herself -- "I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then I just got really scared, like I couldn't swing" -- but Zheng said she simply willed herself back. "The first things in that moment I thought, 'Please, I don't want to be beaten, like, 6-0.' I just wanted to win one game in that moment," Zheng said after. "After ... I felt better on court, I felt, like, I can see the tennis better. Then I felt I have a lot of energy... I can just keep pushing, keep fighting." During Monday's clash with Swiatek, Zheng had a similar rough start. When she saw herself again trailing 5-0, she said she tried to approach it point by point and not think beyond that. From there, she saw her level improve and find a match rhythm. "I even forgot the score at 4-5 in the first set, which showed I was focused," she said. "To come back from 0-5 is not lucky, that's all I can say." Outside of the 2024 Olympics, she had never beaten Swiatek, losing in all seven of their previous tour-level meetings. But Zheng learned from those past encounters, explaining she knew she needed to stay aggressive -- something she hadn't done well enough before -- and hitting as flat as possible to neutralize Swiatek's top speed. At the end of the match, Zheng gestured a puzzle piece to her team, in reference to their previous conversation about putting everything together. Swiatek couldn't hide her frustration in the moments after the match. After giving a brief wave to the crowd when walking off the court, she hit her racket onto the towel box as soon as she turned the corner, and presumably when she believed she was out of sight. Having won the Canadian Open title and reaching the semifinals in Cincinnati, she was among the favorites for the title in New York, and the early exit clearly stung. She reached just one major quarterfinal in 2026 after reaching the round or better in all four Slams in 2025. "I felt like I started missing too many shots, she started playing, and I let her back into the match," Swiatek said matter-of-factly after. Zheng, who entered the tournament at No. 121, is now back up to No. 52 in the live rankings and would be just outside the top 30 with another victory. She will now take on No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion, who defeated Naomi Osaka, 6-1, 6-4, on Monday in the fourth round. Zheng has a 1-4 career record against Rybakina, including two losses this season. She didn't know who she would be facing when speaking to the media on Monday afternoon but said she would be ready for either challenge. "Doesn't matter who I play against, I just gonna give my 100%," she said. Entering the quarterfinals, no woman has spent more time on court than Zheng (9 hours and 29 minutes). But she insists, even after seven matches over the past two weeks, her confidence in herself has never wavered. She has more to give and is just happy to keep going. "I have to say [the] more matches I play, [the] more rhythm I get on court," Zheng said. "People often ask me if you are tired ... I'm not tired at all. I just feel really pumped for my next match, trying to reach [a] better level here, trying to show my tennis and enjoy this fantastic stadium."