Zheng Qinwen makes big US Open comeback. Naomi Osaka joins her in the fourth round

NEW YORK (AP) — Zheng Qinwen was on her back with her arms in the air, celebrating a U.S. Open victory maybe only she believed was possible.

Madison Keys fought off tears as she tried to explain how Zheng, way down and all but out, somehow got the win.

Zheng, the Olympic gold medalist, extended her return to the U.S. Open on Saturday with a spectacular and stunning rally, winning the final seven games to eliminate No. 22 Keys 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5.

“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,” Keys said. “I don’t know. Tennis just feels really hard right now, so I feel like that kind of took over.”

Hours later, 13th-seeded Naomi Osaka joined her in the fourth round by defeating Elise Mertens 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. The two-time champion from Japan put her head on her racket after the final point, stunned herself at the victory.

“Honestly, I can’t believe I won this match,” Osaka said. “I’m literally shocked that I won this match.”

Not quite as big a comeback as Zheng, but Osaka was down 4-2 in the third set and apologized for expressing so much frustration throughout a tough night.

“There was a certain point, I don’t know, I felt like I put my entire heart on the court and then I just kept trying every single point,” Osaka said. “I didn’t feel like I played amazing, and it was really getting me down. I was very negative on myself.”

Osaka avoided the kind of exit men's No. 9 seed Taylor Fritz endured, blowing a two-set lead and falling to No. 24 Francisco Cerundolo 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

“I don’t know how I let that happen today,” Fritz said.

Amanda Anisimova, like Fritz and Keys a past runner-up at the U.S. Open, also was knocked out when the No. 10 seed lost to No. 24 Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 7-5. No. 5 Flavio Cobolli, the French Open runner-up, lost in four sets to No. 28 Alexander Blockx to leave the men's draw without six of the top 10 seeds.

Keys won a three-set match in the previous round in a match tiebreaker when she fought off five match points. Two days later came a collapse that was as out-of-nowhere as that comeback.

The 2017 runner-up rebounded after losing the second-set tiebreaker to charge out to a 5-0 lead. Zheng held but Keys had a match point while serving at 5-1, and once she couldn't convert that, the turnaround was on, with Keys at one point banging her racket into her head repeatedly and pulling off her visor in disgust.

“I’m just telling myself keep holding every single point, never give up, stay there and somehow little by little it just happened,” Zheng said.

She won the gold medal for China at the 2024 Olympics after reaching the Australian Open final that year, and has been ranked as high as No. 4. But after elbow surgery, she is down to No. 121 and had to go through qualifying just to make the main draw.

“The hard work pays off,” said Zheng, who will play 2022 U.S. Open champion Iga Swiatek next.

Coco Gauff, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, beat Cristina Bucsa 6-3, 6-4. She'll face 18-year-old Iva Jovic in a matchup of young Americans with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line.

“Honestly, I feel like I’m definitely used to getting to Week 2s now because I feel like I woke up today and I was like, ’Oh, we’re already in Round 3,'” Gauff said. “So, I think that’s a good sign, just feeling like I’m not feeling tired.”

Jovic defeated fan favorite Alex Eala of the Phillipines 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 in a match that lasted over three hours.

“The level was absolutely incredible from both sides,” Jovic said. “We definitely put on a show, and it literally took everything to get through that.”

Keys, who won the 2025 Australian Open for her lone Grand Slam title, said she was going to have to make some unspecified changes she has been putting off.

“I think she started playing better; I started playing poorly,” Keys said. “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.”

Fritz stormed through his first two rounds, losing a total of 11 games, and there was no hint of trouble when he broke Cerundolo to open the third set. But Cerundolo broke right back and started to feel more comfortable in his first time playing in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“I think fourth and fifth I played a really good tennis that I wasn’t finding that tennis in the previous sets and the previous rounds,” the Argentine said.

Anisimova missed repeated chances by converting just 3 of 16 break-point chances (19%). Potapova, a 25-year-old who was born in Russia but now represents Austria, went 6 for 8 and matched her best showing in a Grand Slam tournament by reaching the fourth round.

Anisimova made the final at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2025, falling to Aryna Sabalenka in Flushing Meadows. But after reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the American was eliminated in the third round of the last three majors this year.

Potapova will play No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva, the French Open champion.

Top-seeded man Alexander Zverev, who had to win five-setters in the first two rounds and spent nearly 9 1/2 hours on the court during that time, beat No. 25 seed Alejandro Tabilo 6-2, 7-6 (2), 6-2 in the nightcap on Ashe.

AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.

See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Naomi Osaka, of Japan, celebrates after defeating Elise Mertens, of Belgium, in three sets during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Taylor Fritz, of the United States, sits during a break from play during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships against Francisco Cerundolo, of Argentina, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Madison Keys, of the United States, reacts after she lost her match to Zheng Qinwen, of China, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Zheng Qinwen, of China, celebrates after she won her match against Madison Keys, of the United States, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Anastasia Potapova, of Austria, reacts after she won her match against Amanda Anisimova, of the United States, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Amanda Anisimova, of the United States, reacts during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships against Anastasia Potapova, of Austria, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Madison Keys, of the United States, returns the ball to Zheng Qinwen, of China, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Zheng Qinwen, of China, celebrates after she won her match against Madison Keys, of the United States, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Zheng Qinwen, of China, gestures after she won her match against Madison Keys, of the United States, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis championships Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Max Verstappen snatched pole position for the Formula 1 Singapore sprint race in a hectic qualifying session Friday, while Mercedes' George Russell seized a chance to make up ground on standings leader Kimi Antonelli.

Verstappen went fastest by 0.120 of a second from Russell, whose strategy of “all-out attack” this week leaves him starting Saturday's sprint five places ahead of Mercedes teammate Antonelli. Charles Leclerc begins the sprint third for McLaren.

“I did not expect this, very happy to be first,” Verstappen said. “The last few races we have been a lot stronger, but this track still highlights a few weaknesses in the car, but we have tried to drive with them as much as possible.”

After winning last week's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia with an upgraded Red Bull car, Verstappen has now shown he can build on that success on a very different sort of track. Starting on pole is extra valuable in Singapore because overtaking is difficult on the tight street circuit.

Verstappen was summoned by the stewards in an investigation into whether he overtook Lewis Hamilton earlier in the qualifying session under yellow flags. That could potentially lead to a penalty.

The sprint is Russell’s best chance of challenging Antonelli this weekend because the British driver must serve a grid penalty for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.

Russell's power unit suddenly failed Sunday during the Bahrain Grand Prix, leaving him with a penalty this week for an engine change.

After that, it's "all-out attack, just trying to enjoy the weekend," Russell said Thursday. "Obviously not an ideal situation, but Singapore is a place I love and I’ll try and carve my way through the pack.”

On a day when Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff slammed as ‘brainless’ the claims that Mercedes would favor Antonelli over Russell, the Italian produced one of his worst qualifying performances of the year, nearly seven-tenths of a second off the pace.

Russell is using an older-specification car in Singapore, while Antonelli tries to make the best of an updated package he called “unpredictable” Friday which hasn't worked as expected in recent races. “I think it will be a difficult weekend,” he added.

With the final sprint race of the season Saturday, Russell and his rivals will have an unusual daylight race on the streets of the southeast Asian city state, before the typical night race Sunday.

Russell said Singapore was “probably the second-bottom of the list” in terms of the ease of fighting back after a penalty, and predicted he may need to serve another for an engine change before the season is over.

It's a big contrast with the last time Antonelli had to serve a penalty. Mercedes changed his engine for the Italian Grand Prix in a planned move, calculating that overtaking was easy enough at Monza that he could limit the damage. He did far more than that and took a statement victory in his home race.

Antonelli finished second behind Verstappen in Malaysia for his sixth podium finish in the last seven races, moving him 84 points clear of Russell in the standings.

With 33 points on offer across Singapore's sprint race and Grand Prix, if Antonelli scores 16 points more than Russell this week, he'd have a shot at sealing the title at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 25.

Lando Norris may have a fix for his McLaren's straight-line speed problem, but this weekend could still spell the end of his title defense if Antonelli outscores the McLaren driver by 18 points. Leclerc and Verstappen could also be eliminated from contention.

Singapore is always a tough test for drivers because of the heat and humidity, compared to a sauna by Verstappen on Friday. This week, add in a haze of air pollution from forest fires in nearby Indonesia.

The haze was present last week in Malaysia, too. Singapore organizers said Friday they are monitoring the conditions but there are “currently no plans to modify our entertainment activities” around the race.

Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas has plenty of first-hand experience of the local conditions after cycling from Sepang to Singapore this week.

There's also a chance of rain affecting the action on Saturday and Sunday. Not only is a wet street track a tricky proposition, but there's extra scrutiny on the cars after a software bug on a wet track caused the start to be delayed in Malaysia.

The FIA says the software fix rushed out for Sunday's race is ready for use again in Singapore and a new version is coming for the United States Grand Prix.

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the sprint qualifying session ahead of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix in Singapore, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Britain's George Russell steers his Mercedes at pit line during the first free practice ahead of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix, in Singapore, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Mercedes driver George Russell, of Britain, sits on his car at pits before the first free practice ahead of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix, in Singapore, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Workers pose for photos during a hazy day ahead of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A gardener waters plants during a hazy day ahead of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy reacts during an interview ahead of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain adjust his cap at the paddock ahead of the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)