By Shrivathsa Sridhar
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sixth seed Madison Keys struggled to find any rhythm as her quest for a hardcourt Grand Slam double went up in flames after a 6-7(10) 7-6(3) 7-5 defeat by unseeded Mexican Renata Zarazua in the first round of the U.S. Open on Monday.
The 30-year-old American, who lifted her maiden Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open in January, made a staggering 89 unforced errors with 14 double faults and became the highest seed to exit the women’s draw at the year’s final major.
“I’m just very happy obviously coming in to the match I was like almost crying because I was really nervous but I think the crowd made it so chill for me… thank you guys, for staying,” Zarazua said.
“I know my game is a bit tricky so sometimes people get a bit bored … We don’t have many tennis players as you can see but I had some Mexico players from doubles cheering for me. I could hear some Mexican cheering so that was very nice.”
Spurred on by the home crowd, Keys battled from 2-4 down in the opening set and clinched it in a tense tiebreak after saving five set points and she let out a huge roar to loud cheers on a sunbathed Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 2017 runner-up composed herself in the second set and raced ahead 3-0 but Zarazua was not done and mounted a strong fightback by winning the next five games.
Keys unleashed a huge forehand winner to go level after 10 games, but the sixth seed continued to waste her opportunities and allowed Zarazua to force another tiebreak and prolong the error-riddled but enthralling contest.
There was little to separate the duo in the decider before Zarazua surged to a 5-3 lead and then staved off a comeback attempt from Keys to prevail in three hours and 10 minutes to set up a meeting with Frenchwoman Diane Parry in the next round.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar and Amy Tennery in New YorkEditing by Toby Davis)
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