NEW YORK — American eighth seed Madison Keys claimed a dramatic 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(3) comeback win over a tearful Naomi Osaka on Friday to reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open.
Leading 5-1 in the third set and on the cusp of the biggest victory of her career, Osaka crumbled as Keys swept the next five games en route to a victory that left her stunned 18-year-old opponent fighting back tears.
“Those aren’t the most fun matches but I just knew that if I stayed in the match that I could maybe have a chance to come back and get back in it,” said Keys, who will next meet former world number one and U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki.
“Once I was able to get a little bit of momentum, I felt like I found my game a bit more. At that point, I knew I had to kind of step up or else I was going to be going home.”
It was an excruciating collapse by her opponent played out on the game’s biggest stage.
The Japanese world number 81 was left in tears several times as her lead slowly slipped away, a distraught Osaka at one point hanging her head and covering her eyes as she walked to a corner of the court.
But there was no place to hide inside the massive Arthur Ashe Stadium from the gaze of thousands of fans or a ruthless Keys, who moved in for the kill and clinched the comeback when Osaka sent a return wide.
Osaka came out swinging freely from the baseline like a player with nothing lose but when the teenager suddenly looked up at the scoreboard as she lead 5-1 in the third set, the weight of reality dropped upon her.
With each missed shot, each missed opportunity, her nerves frayed a little more.
Twice Osaka would serve for the match and twice she would be broken.
“I think some losses are tougher than others,” said Keys. “Some kind of stick around longer than others.
“But at the end of the day, if you can learn something from it, then you can take it as a positive.”
In men’s action, top seed Novak Djokovic cannot seem able to get a match in at the U.S. Open, as the world number one was given another rapid advance when Russian Mikhail Youzhny retired due to a leg injury when trailing 4-2.
Youzhny was treated during the changeover at 4-1 in the third-round match at Arthur Ashe Stadium and had his left thigh taped. He won the next game on his serve but could not continue, giving Djokovic a pass into the round of 16.
The Serb, winner of this year’s Australian Open and French Open to complete a career grand slam, came into the match off a three-day break due to a walkover into the third round when Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic withdrew.
“It’s difficult to pick the words now. I don’t think I ever had this kind of situation in my career, where I had a second-round walkover and the third round 30 minutes only,” Djokovic said on court before heading off to practice.
“I’ll try to get the positives out of these six games. Obviously I did start very well with a good intensity and I’ll try to carry that into the next match.”
Defending champion Djokovic will next face either 20th-seeded American John Isner or 84th-ranked Briton Kyle Edmund with a berth in the quarterfinals at stake.
In other action, American Jack Sock knocked former champion Marin Cilic out of the U.S. Open in a power-packed 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 third-round victory.
Sock, who battled back from a two-set deficit to beat the Croat in a Davis Cup duel in July, was impeccable on serve as he did not face a single break point while converting four of six break opportunities against the seventh-seeded Cilic.
“My first time in the fourth round here,” 26th seed Sock said in an on-court interview after dismissing the 2014 U.S. Open winner. “It was a big match for me, a big goal of mine.”