Madison Keys opened up about her struggles after a difficult loss on Day 7 at the US Open.

Chris OddoSeptember 5, 20262 minute read

Madison Keys was one point away from the fourth round of the US Open on Saturday. Somehow, she ended the day wondering how tennis had become so difficult again, after falling to Zheng Qinwen, 1-6, 7-6(3), 7-5. 

Keys led Zheng 5-0 in the third set and held a match point in the sixth game, only to watch the match unravel in a stunning defeat. Afterwards, Keys was clearly shaken, and acknowledged that the grind of the tour — and a struggle that has been building for months — has taken a toll.

“I feel like I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then I just got really — I mean, got really scared, like I couldn’t swing,” she said. “Tennis just feels really hard right now, so I feel like that kind of took over.”

It was a striking admission, particularly given where Keys was mentally less than two years ago.

She began 2025 by winning the Australian Open, her first Grand Slam title, and spoke at the time about finally letting go of the pressure she had carried for years — the feeling that she needed to win a major and achieve at a certain level to validate her career.

Some 20 months later, in a strange way, Keys finds herself wrestling with that burden again.

“I just feel like I’ve kind of been struggling for a while now, and I feel like I was able to kind of play through it for a bit,” she said. “I’m sure everyone could kind of see that I was struggling a little bit, but inside it felt probably even bigger than that.”

Keys said the problem has been building, but the relentless nature of the tennis calendar made it easy to keep pushing it aside.

“It’s just to the point where I actually need to do something about it,” she said.

It was a stark reminder of how difficult it can be for even the most accomplished players to escape the chase for results — and the weight of their own expectations and everyone else’s.