Madison Keys suffers first-round loss to Renata Zarazua in major US Open upset

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Aug 25, 2025

Published in Tennis

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NEW YORK — Day two of the US Open delivered the tournament’s first big stunner.

Renata Zarazúa of Mexico defeated No. 6 seed Madison Keys 6-7(10), 7-6(3), 7-5 in a major first-round upset at Arthur Ashe Stadium Monday afternoon.

Keys, who holds the third-highest ranking among American women, committed 89 unforced errors and totaled 14 double faults.

“For the first time in a while, [I felt] my nerves really got the better of me, and it kind of became a little bit paralyzing,” Keys said. “I felt like I was just slow, I wasn’t seeing things the way that I wanted to, which I feel like resulted in a lot of bad decisions and lazy footwork.”

Keys outlasted Zarazua in a marathon first set, then jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second.

But Keys lost the next five games, and after rebounding to go back up 6-5 in that second set, she dropped the final two games to even the match.

“She reset the point a lot,” Key said of Zarazua. “I mean, kudos to her for making me play a lot of balls today. She’s a tricky player. I felt like she was kind of resetting the point over and over and over again and just kind of stayed tough in really important points.”

Keys won the Australian Open in January for her first-ever Grand Slam title. She was the U.S. Open runner-up in 2017, when she lost to another American, Sloane Stephens, in the final.

But Monday marked Keys’ third first-round exit at Flushing Meadows and her first since 2021.

“I’ve had a lot of success, have probably won the most matches I’ve ever won in a year, but then losing today — and I think it’s more so, like, the way that I played today — it kind of sucks. But I think big picture, if you told me at the beginning of the year what I was signing up for, I would obviously say yes,” she said.

The win made Zarazua, who is ranked No. 82 in the world, the first Mexican woman to defeat a top-10 opponent at the Open.

“I looked up to many players, like Serena, Venus [Williams], a lot of the players that I watched growing up. But also, in Mexico, it’s probably not the most famous sport. … I got into tennis just because my brother was playing,” Zarazua said.

Zarazua added with a smile, “I started loving it. Yeah, I was just really happy that I chose to play that sport.”

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