One of the biggest stories of the 2026 United States Open over the last few days have been the amazing single set comebacks by reigning Olympic champion and 2024 Australian Open finalist Qinwen Zheng of China. Not once, but twice, Zheng was down two sets to none in a single set and won.
The first time came on Saturday in the third round on the Grandstand Court. Zheng lost 6-1 to 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys of the United States in the first set rather convincingly. Zheng regrouped with a 7-6 second set win where she won 7-3 in the tiebreak. Then in the third set, Keys won the first five games before Zheng inexplicably won the last seven games to win the match.
Keys was very emotional with the loss. According to Chris Oddo of TennisNow, she stated, “I feel like I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then I just got really -I mean, got really scared, like I couldn’t swing.”
The second time came on Labour Day Monday in the fourth round, where Zheng worked really hard after a terrible start where she lost the first five games of the match to Iga Swiatek of Poland, the six-time grand slam champion and the tournament’s eighth seed. Zheng went on to win 13 of the next 16 games to win 7-5, 6-3 in straight sets. A key statistic was winning percentage on first serve points. Zheng was at 83% and Swiatek was at 57%.
Next up for Zheng is the second seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, the Australian Open champion. There is a lot on the line for Rybakina. With a win, she will be number one for the first time in her career.
