US Open Day 7 Debrief — Saturday, September 5, 2026: Cerundolo ruins the party, Keys finds the trapdoor, and Tien wins the last word

By the end of the matinee, Fritz was gone.

Madison Keys then misplaced a 5–0 lead, Amanda Anisimova joined the departing crowd and the home contingent spent much of Day 7 stepping on carefully positioned rakes.

The evening repaired some of the damage. Coco Gauff steadied herself, Iva Jovic survived three hours with her friend Alexandra Eala, and Learner Tien eventually turned off the lights after five sets against Jakub Mensik.

This was not quite an American disaster. It was a party ruined in daylight and partially rebuilt after dark.

For two sets and a break, Francisco Cerundolo appeared to be participating mainly so Taylor Fritz had somebody to beat.

Fritz took the opening sets 6–3, 6–4 and broke immediately in the third. He had not dropped a set all tournament. Cerundolo was playing his first match on Ashe. The home favourite was one clean hour from the fourth round.

Then Fritz donated a loose service game and the entire afternoon changed direction.

Cerundolo broke straight back, lengthened the rallies and began asking Fritz for one additional shot in points the American had previously been finishing. Fritz’s serve stopped solving everything. His frustration became increasingly visible. Cerundolo took the third set 6–3 and the fourth 6–4.

Fritz still found one final opening. At 4–3 in the fifth, he reached 0–40 on Cerundolo’s serve. Three break points, any one of which would have allowed him to serve for the match.

Cerundolo saved all three.

He broke Fritz in the next game and completed a 3–6, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, 6–4 comeback with the calm of somebody returning a borrowed item.

“I don’t really want to talk to anybody, see anybody,” Fritz said later. “I don’t know how I let that happen today.”

The timing made it hurt more. Novak Djokovic was already gone, Jannik Sinner never reached New York and Carlos Alcaraz is still working his way back from injury. Fritz could see the opening in the draw. He simply could not get through it. The Guardian’s courtside report

Cerundolo, meanwhile, has reached the fourth round here for the first time. “Everyone can win,” he said of a men’s field with only four top-10 seeds remaining.

On Saturday, he supplied the evidence himself. Cerundolo on the suddenly open men’s draw

Madison Keys had spent the previous round producing one of the escapes of the tournament, saving five match points against Anna Bondar.

Tennis returned the favour with unusual speed.

Keys swept through Zheng Qinwen 6–1 in 23 minutes and later built a 5–0 lead in the deciding set. At 5–1, she held a match point.

Zheng saved it. Then she won another game. And another.

Keys began shortening her swings and guiding the ball rather than striking it. Zheng, who had been one point from elimination, suddenly looked like the only player with somewhere to go.

The final seven games all belonged to her.

Zheng won 1–6, 7–6(3), 7–5 and collapsed onto the Grandstand court. Two days after Keys escaped five match points, she had lost from five games ahead.

Her explanation afterwards was painfully direct.

“I just got really scared, like I couldn’t swing,” Keys said. “Tennis just feels really hard right now.”

She said the struggle had been building for some time and that she could no longer keep postponing changes. There was no press-conference varnish on it, just a very good player explaining what it feels like when the court suddenly becomes too small. Keys’ candid post-match comments

For Zheng, it was the reverse journey. Elbow surgery and a long collapse in form had pushed the Olympic champion into qualifying. She arrived in the main draw after three preliminary matches and is now the first women’s qualifier to reach the fourth round here since Emma Raducanu won the title in 2021.

“Finally one time a bit of luck is on my side,” Zheng said.

Luck opened the door. Zheng still had to walk through it seven times in succession. Reuters’ Zheng–Keys match report

By the time Coco Gauff walked onto Ashe, Fritz, Keys and last year’s finalist Amanda Anisimova had all been eliminated.

Cristina Bucsa then broke her and moved 3–1 ahead.

At that point, American tennis could reasonably have requested that Saturday be discontinued.

Gauff instead won five consecutive games to take the opening set. Bucsa recovered from another break in the second and levelled at 4–4, but Gauff took the final eight points of the match to win 6–3, 6–4.

It was neither spotless nor especially dramatic. On this particular afternoon, competence felt heroic.

Gauff has now reached the fourth round at five consecutive US Opens. Her next opponent is another American, although the home crowd may need to negotiate its loyalties.

Andy Roddick had highlighted Iva Jovic against Alexandra Eala before the third round.

“Get your popcorn ready,” he said. John Isner called it a “blockbuster” and argued that the match belonged on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The organisers agreed. The players provided three hours of supporting evidence.

Jovic and Eala are close friends. During Fan Week they had even played doubles together with their fathers. None of that made the deciding set particularly polite.

Jovic took the first 7–5. Eala answered 6–3 and moved 4–2 ahead in the third. The noise surrounding Eala has followed her through New York, and Roddick had warned that Ashe might become an away match for the American.

Jovic recovered anyway. She broke back, held her nerve through the final stretch and won 7–5, 3–6, 7–5.

“That felt like a marathon,” she said. “I felt like I lost my sanity five times over.”

This is Jovic’s first US Open fourth round and her third appearance in the last 16 of a major this year. She has also beaten Eala on clay, grass and now hard court.

The friendship can resume later. Gauff is waiting now. Roddick and Isner preview the matchup · Jovic–Eala match report and interview

Naomi Osaka entered Louis Armstrong Stadium in a grey checked blazer-hoodie and wide-leg trousers. It looked like tennis attire designed for somebody who might need to chair a meeting immediately afterwards.

Elise Mertens ensured the meeting overran.

Osaka won the opening set 6–3, lost the second by the same score and fell a break behind in the third. Mertens held for 4–2 before Osaka began the repair: hold, break, hold.

That put Osaka ahead 5–4. Mertens was serving to stay in the match there and managed to hold for 5–5. Osaka then held with the help of a large ace and broke in the following game to win 6–3, 3–6, 7–5.

The third set also brought treatment for an Achilles problem, a racket thrown to the floor and an apology from Osaka to the children watching.

“Honestly, I can’t believe I won this match,” she said.

After two hours and 38 minutes, disbelief was an acceptable reaction. Elena Rybakina comes next, which is less a reward than a fresh assignment. Reuters’ Osaka–Mertens report

Alexander Zverev had played ten sets and spent nine hours and 26 minutes on court across his first two matches.

His coach finally revealed an important loophole.

“Best-of-five sets doesn’t mean that you have to play five sets,” Zverev joked afterwards. “I didn’t know it until now.”

Against Alejandro Tabilo, he required only three.

Zverev won 6–2, 7–6(2), 6–2. The second set briefly became complicated when his 4–2 lead turned into a 4–5 deficit, and he paused during the tiebreak to address a spectator offering unwanted advice. He then won the breaker comfortably and finished the match in two hours and 25 minutes.

After his opening week, this qualified as express service. Luciano Darderi is next. Reuters’ Zverev–Tabilo report

Learner Tien and Jakub Mensik were less interested in efficiency.

Tien took the first set 6–3. Mensik answered 6–1 and won the third-set tiebreak. Tien forced a fifth, then broke late to complete a 6–3, 1–6, 6–7(2), 6–3, 6–4 victory.

Mensik struck 23 aces. Tien managed four. He still won seven of their 14 break-point exchanges and reached the US Open fourth round for the first time.

The final match of Day 7 became a contest between obvious power and persistent inconvenience.

In New York, persistent inconvenience had already enjoyed an excellent Saturday. Completed Mensik–Tien score and statistics

Edge Market Wire’s Odds Market Intelligence had identified value on Cerundolo at 6.60 against an estimated fair price of approximately 6.24. The tracked offer initially shortened to 6.40.

The market did not travel cleanly in one direction after that, but the original idea landed spectacularly: Cerundolo won after trailing by two sets and a break.

That is worth mentioning. It does not require a seminar.

Zheng’s reward for surviving Keys is Iga Swiatek, who beat Marie Bouzkova 7–6(3), 7–6(3) after saving three set points in the second. Their fourth-round match reprises the Paris Olympic semifinal Zheng won on her way to gold.

Osaka meets Rybakina. Gauff meets Jovic. Mirra Andreeva, through to her first US Open fourth round after beating Nikola Bartunkova 6–2, 7–6(5), meets Anisimova’s conqueror Anastasia Potapova.

On the men’s side, Cerundolo faces Alexander Blockx, the 28th seed who removed No. 5 Flavio Cobolli 6–7(4), 6–3, 6–0, 6–3. One of them will become a US Open quarterfinalist.

Zverev finally has a little energy left. Tien probably has none and continues anyway.

Saturday began with American expectation filling Ashe. It ended with the home players who survived looking rather more interesting than the ones everybody expected to.