The US Open’s second Saturday turned into one of the tournament’s sharpest momentum swings, with Taylor Fritz, Madison Keys and Amanda Anisimova all exiting while Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Mirra Andreeva kept their title campaigns alive in New York.
The biggest men’s result came on Arthur Ashe Stadium, where Francisco Cerundolo recovered from two sets down to beat ninth seed Fritz 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. On the women’s side, Zheng Qinwen produced the most dramatic escape of the day, saving a match point and coming back from 5-0 down in the deciding set to defeat Keys 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.
For a global audience, the day mattered because it changed both draws at once. Fritz had been one of the leading home hopes in a men’s field already missing several usual certainties. Keys and Anisimova were major American contenders in the women’s draw. Their defeats did not decide the tournament, but they removed three high-profile names before the second week fully settled.
Fritz Loses From Two Sets Up
Fritz looked in control after taking the first two sets against Cerundolo, but the Argentine shifted the rhythm of the match by extending rallies, finding more depth from the baseline and forcing the American to play under pressure for longer than he had in the opening hour.
Cerundolo’s comeback was not only a scoreline shock. Fritz had reached a US Open final two years earlier and had not dropped a set during the first week. His exit keeps alive the United States’ long wait for a men’s singles champion in New York, a drought stretching back to Andy Roddick’s 2003 title.
The result also opened a section of the men’s draw. Belgian 28th seed Alexander Blockx beat fifth seed Flavio Cobolli 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-0, 6-3, meaning Blockx will face Cerundolo in the fourth round. That pairing gives one of them a significant opportunity after a day when two seeded names above them disappeared from the same quarter.
Keys Collapse Gives Zheng A Route Back
Keys’ defeat was even more abrupt. The 2017 US Open runner-up led Zheng 5-0 in the final set and held a match point, but could not close out the match. Zheng won seven straight games to complete a 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 recovery that immediately became one of the tournament’s defining early-weekend moments.
That reversal carried extra weight because Keys had already survived a major scare earlier in the tournament. Tennis can reward momentum brutally, and this time the pressure moved against her. Zheng’s win sends her into a fourth-round meeting with Swiatek, giving the women’s draw a high-value matchup between a major champion and one of the tour’s most powerful hard-court players.
Anisimova also fell, losing 6-2, 7-5 to Anastasia Potapova after a match in which errors repeatedly interrupted her comeback attempts. Potapova’s reward is a meeting with Andreeva, who beat Nikola Bartunkova 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) to reach the fourth round at the US Open for the first time.
Gauff And Swiatek Hold Their Line
Gauff prevented the American story from becoming a complete collapse. The fourth seed beat Cristina Bucsa 6-3, 6-4, reaching the fourth round without producing her cleanest tennis but with enough return pressure and composure to control the key passages.
The result keeps Gauff in the second week and preserves one of the tournament’s biggest commercial and sporting storylines. Her 2023 US Open title still shapes the way home crowds view her New York runs, but Saturday was less about dominance than management: absorb an awkward opponent, avoid panic after service swings, and leave with the draw still open.
Swiatek also had to work. The eighth seed beat Marie Bouzkova 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3), surviving a physical match full of extended rallies. The scoreline showed how narrow the margins were, but it also reinforced why she remains dangerous even when not fully fluent. Two tiebreaks under pressure are a different kind of statement than a quick straight-sets win.
The cluster of results gives the women’s fourth round a sharper edge. Gauff remains the leading American still standing from Saturday’s daytime storyline, Swiatek now has Zheng ahead, and Andreeva faces Potapova after both came through different types of pressure.
Why Day Seven Changes The Tournament
Grand Slam third rounds often function as a filter between early survival and serious contention. Saturday did that with unusual force. Fritz, Keys, Anisimova and Cobolli all had enough profile to shape the second week, but none reached it. Cerundolo, Zheng, Potapova and Blockx now carry the opportunity created by those exits.
That volatility also matters for search interest. The phrase “US Open upsets” fits the day naturally because this was not one isolated result. It was a run of connected exits across the men’s and women’s draws, with American players central to the drama and several internationally relevant contenders advancing around them.
GDU recently covered the US Open’s opening weekend as part of a global sports roundup, but Saturday supplied a separate news event: completed third-round results that changed the shape of the tournament. The broader tennis context also follows from GDU’s earlier coverage of the North American hard-court swing, where Gauff, Andreeva and other contenders were already building toward New York.
The next stage is clearer now. Cerundolo and Blockx meet with a Grand Slam quarter-final route in view. Zheng gets Swiatek in a match with major baseline firepower. Gauff moves deeper into a home Slam where every round brings more attention. And for Fritz, Keys and Anisimova, Saturday becomes a missed opportunity that will linger well beyond one session.
The sports score for this article is 84 out of 100. The US Open has elite tournament importance, worldwide tennis audience reach and strong search demand. Multiple seeded exits, two major comebacks, Gauff and Swiatek advancing, official tournament context and confirmation across reputable tennis coverage lift the story above the Global Sports Highlights threshold.
This was therefore a valid Nairobi Sunday morning Global Sports Highlights selection: completed within the previous 24 hours, verified against tournament and reputable sports reporting, internationally relevant, and distinct from GDU’s prior US Open opening-weekend and Canadian Open tennis coverage.
