Mexico’s Renata Zarazúa pulled off a major upset at the US Open tennis tournament on Monday, eliminating Madison Keys — ranked No. 6 in the world — in stirring come-from-behind fashion.
Zarazúa, 82nd in the WTA world rankings, gave Keys — the reigning Australian Open champion — fits the entire match. She lost the first set 6-7, despite 37 errors by Keys that were technically unforced but often consequences of the Mexican’s relentless pressure.
After falling behind 0-3 in the second set, Zarazúa turned it around to win 7-6 in a tiebreak, before claiming the final set 7-5 to advance.
Afterward, Zarazúa thanked those in Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York who supported her:
“Mexico is a country where there are not many tennis players, but I could definitely hear a lot of Mexicans supporting me, so that was really nice,” she said. “I was trying to focus on the court, which seemed too big to me … when I retire, I’ll be very happy about this.”
The victory is the biggest triumph of Zarazúa’s career and her first-ever win over a Top 10 opponent. Yolanda Ramírez — twice a finalist at the French Open in the early 1960s — is the only other Mexican female to defeat a Top 10 opponent.
Monday’s three-hour, 10-minute marathon was also Zarazúa’s first-ever win on the main court of a Grand Slam event.
Her other appearances on Center Court came in the 2020 French Open (a 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 loss to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina), at Wimbledon 2024 (a 7-6, 6-3 loss to Britain’s Emma Raducanu) and at this year’s Australian Open (a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Italy’s Jasmine Paolini).
US Open Tennis paid tribute to the 27-year-old Mexico City native on its social media account and the WTA Tennis website published an extensive post-match report.
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Keys suffered through an error-strewn performance, as the American made 89 unforced errors and hit 14 double faults.
The high number of errors suggests Keys cost herself the match, but James Hansen of the sports magazine of the New York Times, The Athletic, thought otherwise.
“Though they went down on the stats sheet as mistakes, a significant number of the 80-plus unforced errors that Zarazúa drew from Keys’ racket were in reality the product of accumulated pressure,” he wrote.
Zarazúa will face Diane Parry of France, currently ranked No. 107, in the second round on Wednesday, with a solid chance of advancing past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career.
With reports from Milenio, El Universal, CNN en Español and BBC Sport
