US Open Day 9: A seven-game run and a break-point gap closed out the fourth round
Covering Monday, September 7, 2026 — the second half of the fourth round, day and night sessions, at Flushing Meadows.
Zheng Qinwen beat Iga Swiatek from 0-5 down. The set never got back to her.
Swiatek won the first five games of the match and then served at 5-1 with set points on her racquet. She did not win another game in that set. Zheng took seven in a row to lead 7-5, and by the time the first set was over the shape of the whole match had been set.
Zheng Qinwen def. Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-3 — fourth round, Arthur Ashe Stadium, Monday, September 7.
The opening was one-sided in the ordinary way. Swiatek landed 70 percent of her first serves for the match, and Zheng dropped her first two service games. Zheng came in ranked 121st and playing as a qualifier; Swiatek was the No. 8 seed and led their head-to-head 7-1.
The turn was the game Swiatek served at 5-1. The Associated Press report put it at two set points there, none of them converted. From that point Zheng won the next seven games. What the match statistics published by tennis.com show is that the recovery came off the return rather than off her own serve: Zheng broke in five of the eleven return games she played and converted five of thirteen break points, while Swiatek converted two of seven and broke in two of ten.
Zheng's own serving line is the odd one. She landed only 41 percent of her first serves across the match — a number that would normally sit next to a loss — and won 83 percent of the points behind them, 20 of 24. She did not need volume from the first serve; she needed the ones that landed to end points. Yardbarker's report of the match put Zheng at 20 winners and 17 unforced errors, against 17 winners and 28 unforced errors for Swiatek. "I started making mistakes from easy balls and Qinwen stopped doing mistakes," Swiatek said in her post-match press conference, as reported by The Associated Press.
The second set went 6-3 without a comparable swing. Zheng is the first qualifier to reach the US Open women's quarterfinals since Emma Raducanu in 2021. Two days earlier she had come from 0-5 down in the deciding set to beat Madison Keys. "More matches I play, more rhythm I got on court," Zheng said afterwards, in comments reported by Yardbarker.
What a club player can steal from it: a low first-serve percentage is not automatically the thing to fix. Zheng put fewer than half her first serves in and still won four out of five points behind them, because the ones that landed were doing real work. If you are missing first serves but winning the ones you make, the problem is somewhere else. And when you are down a stack of games, the stat sheet here points at the return games, not the serve — five breaks out of eleven chances to break is what turned 0-5 into 7-5.
Karen Khachanov and Learner Tien played nearly identical tennis. The break points weren't identical.
Tien had fourteen break points and took five. Khachanov had twelve and took nine. Almost everything else across three hours and fifty minutes came out level, and that gap is where the match went.
Karen Khachanov def. Learner Tien 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-4 — fourth round, Louis Armstrong Stadium, Monday, September 7.
Khachanov, unseeded, took the first set 7-5. Tien, the 14th seed and 20 years old, took the second 6-4 and then the third in a tiebreak, 8-6, to move within a set of a first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Two sets to one down, Khachanov was a set from going out.
The fourth set was the only lopsided set of the match: 6-1. Nothing in the published statistics suggests the two players started hitting the ball differently — the totals stay close right through. Khachanov finished with 9 aces to Tien's 8, and 7 double faults to Tien's 8. The winner count went 77-66 to Khachanov and the unforced errors 56-55, which is as close as two players get. Total points won: 166 to 157, out of 323 played. On the raw ball-striking, this was a coin flip.
The break points are where the two lines separate. Khachanov converted 9 of 12, per the published match statistics; Tien converted 5 of 14. Tien manufactured more chances across the five sets and left nine of them on the court. Khachanov left three. In a match this level, that is the entire margin — and it is why the fifth set finished 6-4 rather than the other way.
Khachanov closed it out for his seventh major quarterfinal. He plays Alexander Blockx next, a first meeting between them. "It was a really crazy match," Khachanov said afterwards, in comments published by the ATP Tour.
What a club player can steal from it: count break points won against break points held, not break points created. Getting to 0-30 on a return game feels like progress and shows up nowhere on the scoreboard. The practical version is to decide before the point what you are doing with a break point — a specific return target, a specific first shot — rather than improvising it, because the improvised version is what turns fourteen chances into five.
Around the grounds
Elena Rybakina def. Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-4 — the No. 2 seed into the quarterfinals in straight sets.
Coco Gauff def. Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-4 — Gauff dropped four games in setting up a quarterfinal with Mirra Andreeva.
Mirra Andreeva def. Anastasia Potapova 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 — Andreeva lost the opening set and won the next two.
Alexander Zverev def. Luciano Darderi 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(3) — the top seed through, with the third set going to a tiebreak.
Botic van de Zandschulp def. Arthur Gea 3-6, 6-7(0), 7-6(7), 7-6(3), 6-4 — five hours and thirteen minutes, from two sets down, with Gea a point from becoming the first lucky loser to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Alexander Blockx def. Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 — two 7-5 sets to close out a first Grand Slam quarterfinal for the Belgian.
What's next
Tuesday, September 8 opens the quarterfinals: Aryna Sabalenka against Linda Noskova and Frances Tiafoe against Alex Michelsen in the day session, Jessica Pegula against Emma Navarro and Ben Shelton against Carlos Alcaraz at night.
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