The US Open is considered to be one of the most unpredictable Grand Slams on the calendar, and it has once again stayed true to its reputation. On the Men’s side, no person named other than Roger Federer has successfully defended their title in New York, and the tradition continues with Carlos Alcaraz out of the tournament. Every US Open has its share of surprises, and this year’s tournament saw all kinds of upsets.

The comeback queen: Qinwen Zheng’s impossible run

No player defined the tournament’s chaos quite like Qinwen Zheng. The Chinese star, who failed to qualify for last year’s US Open after picking up a right elbow injury after reaching world No. 4, made the trip to New York via qualifying and gradually became the talk of the tournament. In the third round, she trailed Madison Keys 0-5 in the deciding set before somehow winning it. 

Two days later, in the fourth round, she did it again, wiping out an identical 0-5 deficit against 2022 champion Iga Swiatek to win 7-5, 6-3, sending the Pole off the court in tears. Zheng later admitted that she got so immersed in the second comeback that she totally forgot what the score was. 

Her run finally ended against second seed Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals, but not without giving a fight. The former world No. 4 won the first set, but then Rybakina proved why she is the new world No.1, clinching the next two sets with ease. 

However, Zheng became the first female qualifier to reach the US Open quarterfinals since Emma Raducanu’s title run in 2021, which has pushed her ranking from world No. 121 to 52.

Ben Shelton’s late-night statement against the defending champion

When Ben Shelton entered this year’s US Open, he looked like the force nobody could stop, but then came the quarterfinals against defending champion and former world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz. The duo had played thrice before this quarterfinal clash, with all three matches going the Spaniard’s way. 

Almost everyone had Alcaraz as their favorite going into the match, and then the eighth seed changed the script. He defeated Alcaraz 10-7 in a deciding-set tiebreak, with the final point struck at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish in US Open history.

The unexpected American

While bigger names grabbed headlines, Alex Michelsen made the best Grand Slam run of his career quietly. The unseeded Californian reached his first major quarterfinal by dismantling 27th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry, then pushed Frances Tiafoe to a five-set classic that included a moment where he was serving for the match. 

Earlier in the tournament, Michelsen had said that he would prefer to stay under the radar and avoid any expectations. But this quarterfinal run has almost made that plan impossible, as he became the guy who almost knocked Frances Tiafoe out of the US Open and made his name in front of a packed Arthur Ashe crowd.

Alexander Blockx, the Belgian nobody saw coming

Few players arrived in New York with less fanfare than 21-year-old Alexander Blockx, playing his first US Open main draw. He got a monumental win in his third round against 2026 French Open finalist and the fifth seed Flavio Cobolli, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-0, 6-3. 

Blockx became the fourth Belgian man to reach the US Open fourth round in the Open Era, backing it up with his second career victory over a top-10 opponent after also beating Felix Auger-Aliassime earlier this season in Madrid.

His run finally came to an end in the quarterfinals. Blockx had been carrying a rib injury since the fourth round and took painkillers to get through his win over 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo, then arrived against Karen Khachanov visibly compromised, wearing tape on his thigh and a brace on his ankle. 

He fought through the first two sets regardless, even squaring things up at 2-2 and 5-5 before Khachanov pulled away with clutch breaks to lead 6-2, 7-5. With five games into the third set, trailing 2-3, he retired immediately, ending his first major quarterfinal.

Iva Jovic and Alex Eala: friendship, and heartbreak

The third-round clash between 18-year-old Iva Jovic and Alex Eala was arguably the best match of the tournament yet. The best friends were pitted against each other in the third round of the draw and gave their best on the court until they both fell on their knees. 

Jovic won a three-hour, three-minute battle 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, collapsing to her knees in tears afterward and describing losing her sanity “five times over” just to get through it. Eala, despite the heartbreak of the loss, immediately walked around the net to hug her friend and checked on her again in the locker room, a gesture that later moved Jovic to tears in her press conference.

Jovic, for her part, continued her breakout season by pushing all the way to the fourth round before falling to Coco Gauff in straight sets.

The rest of the chaos

Mariano Navone led the story of the underdogs. He opened the tournament by stunning Novak Djokovic in a five-set first-round classic that ended his 78-match Grand Slam opening-round win streak. 

Francisco Cerundolo came back from two sets down to beat ninth seed Taylor Fritz, marking his earliest US Open exit in four years, before matching his career-best Slam result. 

Dane Sweeny, an Australian wildcard ranked outside the world’s top 100, took down former Grand Slam semifinalist Lorenzo Musetti in four sets. 

Bu Yunchaokete became the first lucky loser in the Open Era to defeat a top-15 seed, 12th seed Rafael Jodar, that too without facing a break point. 

Botic van de Zandschulp, ranked outside the top 50 and playing in his second-ever US Open quarterfinal, knocked out sixth seed Alex de Minaur before surviving back-to-back five-set escapes, including a two-sets-down comeback against lucky loser Arthur Gea that ran five hours and 15 minutes. His run finally ended in straight sets against top seed Alexander Zverev, but not before he called it possibly a better achievement than his breakthrough run to the same stage back in 2021. 

On the women’s side, Kamilla Rakhimova upset two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova, Yulia Putintseva rallied past 12th seed Belinda Bencic, and Taylor Townsend, the doubles world No.1, reached the round of 16, losing to the top seed in straight sets. But she continues her doubles campaign alongside her partner Katerina Siniakova, once again reaching the finals of the US Open. 

While on the men’s side, only the top seed Alexander Zverev made it to the final four, the women’s is stacked, with all the top four seeds making the semis. Two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka against tour leader in wins Jessica Pegula, and 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff against newly crowned world No. 1 Elena Rybakina.