By This Hour World News Desk
Qinwen Zheng produced the most startling result in a reported day of US Open fourth-round matches, overturning a 0-5 deficit in the deciding set to beat Iga Swiatek and reach the women’s quarterfinals. The comeback, if confirmed, would remove a six-time Grand Slam champion from the draw and put Zheng into a meeting with Elena Rybakina, with the world No. 1 ranking also reportedly in play.
The same account says Coco Gauff moved efficiently past fellow American Iva Jovic, while Rybakina beat Naomi Osaka in straight sets despite Osaka being affected by an Achilles tendon problem. In the men’s draw, Alexander Zverev defeated Luciano Darderi in straight sets, while later matches produced two five-set contests, including a five-hour comeback by Botic van de Zandschulp.
Those results would bring a sharply varied set of routes into the tournament’s last eight: a recovery from an apparently hopeless position for Zheng, controlled straight-set wins for Gauff, Rybakina and Zverev, and extended physical contests elsewhere in the men’s draw. The supplied report describes a day in which the shape of both singles brackets changed through very different kinds of pressure.
Zheng’s recovery would reshape the women’s draw
The account says Zheng’s match against Swiatek was decided only after she lost the first five games of the final set in roughly 20 minutes. From 0-5 down, Zheng reportedly recovered to defeat the 2022 US Open champion. No full scoreline for the match was supplied, so the available information does not establish precisely how the earlier sets unfolded or how Zheng completed the turnaround. What is clear from the report is the scale of the final-set reversal: Swiatek was one game from victory before Zheng found a way back.
That pattern was not presented as an isolated escape. The report says Zheng had also recovered from a 0-5 deficit in a deciding set against Madison Keys in the third round. Taken together, the two matches would make Zheng’s route through the tournament unusually precarious and unusually resilient. Recovering once from such a position requires a sustained change in momentum; doing so again in the next round would make composure under acute scoreboard pressure a defining feature of her campaign.
Zheng reportedly sealed the win over Swiatek on her fourth match point and fell to the court afterward. The detail conveys the closeness of the closing stage but does not by itself explain why Swiatek’s lead slipped away. The supplied material contains no account of tactical changes, errors, medical treatment or conditions that might have contributed. It supports the result and the comeback, not a definitive explanation for either player’s performance.
The report also describes Zheng as an Olympic champion and says she has been managing a chronic elbow injury. It identifies her as the first qualifier since Emma Raducanu in 2021 to reach the women’s quarterfinals. That combination would give her progress a distinctive context: a player navigating an injury concern while advancing from qualifying into the final eight. Yet the account does not specify the severity of the elbow issue, the treatment involved or whether it affected her match with Swiatek.
Rybakina awaits as Gauff and Andreeva set a meeting
Rybakina’s reported 6-1, 6-4 win over Osaka sets up the quarterfinal with Zheng. The report says the second-seeded Rybakina is one victory from becoming world No. 1 for the first time. That would raise the stakes of the match beyond a place in the semifinals, although the supplied information does not explain the ranking calculations or identify any other results that could affect that outcome.
Osaka was said to have been hampered by an Achilles tendon injury that had flared in the preceding round. Rybakina’s straight-sets score offers a clear record of the reported result, but it cannot establish how much the injury altered the contest. The available material does not say whether Osaka received treatment, whether she considered stopping, or how the condition might affect her schedule after the tournament. The injury should therefore be treated as reported context, not a complete account of the defeat.
For Rybakina, the victory was described as an encouraging answer to fitness questions following her retirement from the Cincinnati Open before arriving in New York. The report says her preparation for the US Open had been less than ideal. Her progress to the quarterfinals would suggest that she has been able to compete effectively despite those concerns, but it would not resolve them. A straight-sets victory over Osaka offers one data point in the tournament, not a medical assessment or guarantee about the demands still ahead.
Gauff, meanwhile, reportedly beat Jovic 6-1, 6-4 to reach the last eight. The result sends her into a scheduled quarterfinal against Mirra Andreeva, who came through a three-set match with Anastasia Potapova, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. Gauff’s two-set win and Andreeva’s longer recovery create contrasting immediate workloads, although the report provides no match-duration figure for either contest and no basis for drawing firm conclusions about who will be fresher.
Andreeva’s match reportedly ended with Potapova sustaining an injury in the final game. The report says Potapova returned to the court but could not prevent Andreeva from completing the win. It does not specify the nature or seriousness of the injury. As with Osaka’s Achilles issue, the information establishes that an apparent physical problem featured late in the match but leaves important questions unanswered.
The Gauff-Andreeva pairing would place two players who survived different tests into a quarterfinal for a place in the semifinals. Gauff’s reported score suggests she imposed herself early against Jovic; Andreeva had to recover after dropping the opening set. The supplied account says Andreeva was the French Open champion, adding competitive weight to the matchup, but it gives no prior head-to-head record, tactical comparison or further indication of what may decide it.
Zverev advances after earlier marathon matches
In the men’s draw, Zverev reportedly beat Darderi 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(3) at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The first two sets were one-sided by score, while the third went to a tiebreak, suggesting Darderi made the finish more competitive without extending the match to a fourth set. The win followed what the report described as two five-set matches for Zverev earlier in the tournament.
The account says Zverev had lost to Darderi at the Italian Open in Rome earlier in the year. His US Open victory would therefore reverse that prior result. It also says Zverev was pursuing a second Grand Slam title after winning the French Open in June. Those elements frame the match as both an advance in the New York draw and a response to a recent loss, though the supplied material offers no further details on their Rome meeting or Zverev’s route through the bracket.
Elsewhere, Karen Khachanov reportedly defeated 20-year-old American Learner Tien in five sets. The supplied score was 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-4, showing that Khachanov recovered after losing both the second and third sets. It was a match of changing control: Tien moved ahead through the third-set tiebreak, but Khachanov took the fourth set decisively before closing the fifth.
Van de Zandschulp’s reported win over Arthur Gea was longer still. He was said to have prevailed 3-6, 6-7(0), 7-6(7), 7-6(3), 6-4 after five hours. Gea, identified in the report as a 21-year-old lucky loser, was reportedly one point from becoming the first lucky loser in Grand Slam history to reach the quarterfinals. Van de Zandschulp instead escaped in the third-set tiebreak and won two more sets to complete the comeback.
Belgium’s Alexander Blockx also reportedly reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal by defeating 24th-seeded Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. That result adds another player to a men’s quarterfinal field shaped by both direct wins and reversals. The report does not provide the subsequent pairings for Zverev, Khachanov, van de Zandschulp or Blockx, so it is not possible from the available information to map the remaining men’s route in full.
Several important details remain outside the report
The supplied account contains no direct factual contradiction, but it is based on a single report and several claims remain incomplete. Full scorelines are missing for Zheng’s win over Swiatek and for the van de Zandschulp-Gea match beyond the reported set scores; no match times are given except the five-hour duration attributed to the latter contest. The source also does not provide formal injury diagnoses, recovery timelines, draw sheets or ranking scenarios.
Accordingly, the central picture is clear only in the limited sense reported: Zheng is said to have beaten Swiatek after a remarkable deciding-set recovery; Gauff, Rybakina, Andreeva and Zverev are said to have advanced; and the men’s night session included demanding five-set matches. Claims concerning injuries, Zheng’s longer-term elbow condition, Rybakina’s fitness and the potential No. 1 ranking carry more uncertainty because the supplied information does not include independent medical, tournament or ranking documentation.
This report has not been independently corroborated. Readers should treat the results, scores, injury descriptions and projected quarterfinal implications as information attributed to the supplied report pending confirmation from additional reliable records or official tournament material.
For further context on this subject, see Three hikers rescued on Mount Shasta after reported Gemini trip planning.
Reporting notes
What is confirmed: Reported scores place Gauff against Andreeva and Rybakina against Zheng in the women’s quarterfinals.
Why this matters: The reported results set key quarterfinals and could leave Rybakina one win from the No. 1 ranking.
What remains unclear: The report lacks official corroboration, complete draw information, detailed ranking calculations and medical confirmation. This report is based on one source and has not been independently corroborated.
