NEW YORK — Pretty much from the get-go at the US Open on Monday, Madison Keys could tell she wasn’t hitting the ball well or feeling very much at all like the self-confident player who claimed her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January.
After 89 unforced errors, including 14 double-faults, the No. 6-seeded Keys was gone from Flushing Meadows in the first round with a 6-7 (10), 7-6 (3), 7-5 loss to 82nd-ranked Renata Zarazua of Mexico.
“For the first time in a while … my nerves really got the better of me, and it kind of became a little bit paralyzing,” said Keys, the runner-up in New York to good friend Sloane Stephens in 2017 and a semifinalist in 2018 and 2023. “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.”
Her first U.S. Open with the status of major champion — thanks to defeating No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final at Melbourne Park — was over just as it began.
“You always kind of feel first-round jitters and, as the day is getting closer, feeling a little bit more and more nervous,” said Keys, who played with her left thigh heavily taped. “But I feel like, for whatever reason, today I just couldn’t separate myself from … feeling like winning matters just way too much.”
She made so many mistakes off the spin-laden shots coming her way that Zarazua needed to produce just eight winners to earn the biggest victory of her career. Zarazua lost in the first or second round of all eight of her previous Slam appearances.