Iga Swiatek was bounced out of the U.S. Open’s round of 16 on Monday, collapsing after winning the first five games to suffer an upset loss to China’s Qinwen Zheng. 

Zheng, a 7-5, 6-3 victor, is on to the quarterfinals after needing to go through qualifiers to make the Open’s main draw while Swiatek — the 2022 champion here — was left talking of missed shots, missed opportunities and how this has seemed to happen in New York every year since she held the trophy. 

“I wouldn’t say it had anything to do with mentality,” Swiatek said. “It was more that I started making mistakes from easy balls and Qinwen stopped doing mistakes. She played the balls better.” 

Iga Swiatek of Poland returns a ball to Qinwen Zheng of China in the fourth round of the US Open Tennis Championship in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST

Zheng, a former major finalist and the 2024 Olympic gold winner, is no normal qualifier. This all looked quite straightforward nevertheless as Swiatek dominated the early stages. 

She jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and had set points at 5-1 and 5-3, failing to convert both while Zheng gained momentum and confidence. Amazingly, it was the second straight set across two different matches in which Zheng came from 5-0 down, having done so to upset Madison Keys in the third set of their third-round match as well. 

After losing the first and taking a 2-1 lead in the second, Swiatek called for a medical timeout, later saying her quad is “quite tired, but it had no influence on the game.” 

For a brief moment that settled her, and the Pole was up two break points on Zheng at 3-3. Zheng staved both off — both on her second serve — to win the game, then promptly broke Swiatek herself. 

That seemed to take the life out of Swiatek. 

Qinwen Zheng returns a ball to Iga Swiatek of Poland in the fourth round of the US Open Tennis Championship at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST

Iga Swiatek reacts on the bench between games against Qinwen Zheng of China in the fourth round of the US Open Tennis Championship on Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST

A quarterfinal berth is a terrific result for Zheng, who ranked inside the WTA’s top five in 2024 and made the Australian Open final before injuries derailed her 2025 and left her on the tour’s fringes this year. 

She fell to the ground in triumph upon Swiatek hitting the net to end the match at her fourth opportunity. 

“I used to be top 10, Olympic champion, I played in the big stadiums since the beginning,” Zheng said. “My ranking dropped so much after [the] injury, I couldn’t perform well the last 3-4 months. I know people had a lot of doubt about me and it’s just really hard for me. I just need to be positive every single day, telling myself just keep working and let’s see when the results [are] gonna happen.”