US Open Day 9 - Comeback Queen

David Law (0:00)

Hi, from Kansas City, Missouri.

Matt Roberts (0:01)

This is Aladson.

David Law (0:03)

And Josh Baim.

Matt Roberts (0:04)

And you're listening to The Tennis Podcast.

Catherine Whitaker (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, coming to you from New York on day nine of the US Open. And we have just been introduced beautifully there by Josh and his husband, Aladson, by total chance, we all met just yesterday out in Fountain Plaza at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Josh is a long time listener and friend, but he's now managed to convert Aladson. We like that. And Aladson was enjoying his first ever Grand Slam trip when we saw them yesterday. So we hope it was a good one. And we thank you both for introducing today's show.

It is just after midnight, as the three of us come to you tonight, today's play is done. Alexander Zverev was the last to finish, as has become tradition at this US Open. And we'll talk about him and the other men's matches in part two. But let's start with the women tonight and the player who is fast becoming one of the stories of this tournament, if not the story of the tournament, the current world number 121, but former world number four, Zheng Qinwen, who came from five love down, as you might remember, in the deciding set of her last match to beat Madison Keys. Matt, tell us what she did today against Iga Swiatek.

Matt Roberts (1:38)

She came from five love down in the first set to win the set, seven five, and then ultimately the match in straight set, seven five, six three, meaning she won back to back sets in this tournament from five love down.

Crazy, absolutely crazy. I was riding the subway in this morning and excited for this match. Then I just had a sudden thought of, I think this match might be quite one sided for Iga Swiatek. I don't know why I thought that.

I guess part of me thought maybe Zheng might hit some kind of wall or reach some kind of limit. Just maybe not physically, but just in terms of what she's been doing here with the comeback. And Iga Swiatek's been pretty good for a few weeks now. I thought maybe this would be one where she stepped up. And after 20 minutes of this match, I thought, I've nailed this one.

Because Iga Swiatek was five love up in 20 minutes on the Arthur Ashe stadium. And quite frankly, Zheng was really poor in those first five games. She wasn't really getting to the ball. She was over hitting when she was getting there. She looked rushed. It was pretty comfortable for Iga Swiatek. And Swiatek had built that five love lead without having to do too much. She was good. But there was low intensity to the match. And I think that caught Swiatek out a little bit. Because gradually, bit by bit, Zheng started mounting this comeback. And all the WhatsApp chats were going with, oh, you know, Zheng's got her just where she wants her. Ha ha ha. You know, no one actually thought she was going to mount this comeback again. Apart from, I think, Zheng, who seemed to have just the perfect amount of belief. She got one break back. She got two breaks back. She saved a set point. And she just found her game in those games. And started hitting with such force that Swiatek struggled to handle. She's one of these players, Zheng, who has such heavy shots. And they were pushing Swiatek back. And it was more than she could handle. And she took over. And look, it wasn't quite as dramatic, I think, as against Keys, where Keys' game totally fell off. Swiatek's game fell off enough for Zheng to get in. She didn't have a good serving day to be able to just run through a game that she needed to win the set or anything like that. And Zheng mounted the comeback and then managed to get it done in the second set. But it was the first set that was so memorable.

Catherine Whitaker (4:33)

Yeah, she won 13 of the last 16 games from Five Love Down in the first set. And I know that sounds like a disaster for Iga Swiatek. But as you say, Matt, it wasn't like that. It wasn't a tightening the way we saw Manson Keyes the other day where, you know, she was so visibly struggling with the nerves and the situation of feeling this lead slip away. I mean, Iga Swiatek did drop off, but this was mostly about her being totally overwhelmed by Zheng Qinwen, who has a ceiling as high as pretty much anybody on tour. She does have the sort of technique that makes you hold your breath a bit. There are, it's not one of those game styles where you think, oh, there's not much that can go wrong. Like, there is lots that looks like it can go wrong, and we've seen that.