The US Open was fairly quiet on the upset front for most of Sunday until men's No. 13 seed Daniil Medvedev was beaten by Benjamin Bonzi in one of the most dramatic five-setters you'll see. On Monday, however, the upset of the tournament so far took place on thew women's side.
American Madison Keys, the No. 6 seed and Australian Open Champion, was beaten by Mexican Renata Zarazua in the first round on Arthur Ashe Stadium in a very tight match. After a grueling three hours and 13 minutes, Zarazua prevailed 6-7(10), 7-6(3), 7-5.
While the World No. 73 played some of her best tennis and did a great job protecting her serve, one of the weaknesses of her game, the story of the match was Keys and her inexplicable inconsistency throughout the match. The American hit 37 unforced errors in the first set despite winning it and finished with 89 for the match, an astoundingly high number even in a three-set contest.
The undersized Zarazua has maintained a consistent spot on the WTA Tour with her consistency and movement, but the match was on Keys' racket from start to finish due to the unmatched power of the World No. 6. In the end, Keys missed far more balls than she made especially on big points, and that cost her the match.
Keys' second serve was also a major problem in the match. She coughed up 14 double faults on the afternoon, which was a big problem when compounded with a subpar 55% first-serve percentage. Those second serve opportunities were a big reason why Zarazua was able to dig her teeth into return games and put the pressure on an erratic Keys.
Zarazua moves onto the second round to take on Frenchwoman Diane Parry, who beat the legendary Petra Kvitova in the final match of her career on Monday. The two of them are in a now wide-open section that includes No. 11 seed Karolina Muchova as the highest remaining seed until the quarterfinals.
