Anna Bondar was one point from ending Madison Keys’ U.S. Open. Then she reached that point again. And again. And again. And again.
Keys erased all five match points, climbed out of a 5-2 hole in the deciding set and defeated Bondar 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(5) on Thursday, September 3, in one of the tournament’s most improbable escapes so far.
The 31-year-old American did not merely wait for the match to turn. She forced it to turn, leaning on the explosive forehand that has powered her deepest Grand Slam runs. Reuters reported that Keys struck 34 forehand winners during the comeback.
Five trips to the brink
Bondar, a Hungarian player trying to unseat the No. 22 seed, took the opening set 7-5. Keys answered by winning the second 6-4, but the match again tilted sharply toward Bondar when she built a 5-2 lead in the third.
That was when the contest became less about a comfortable lead and more about surviving one point at a time. Bondar created five separate match-point opportunities. Keys saved every one of them, broke back and eventually forced the deciding set to 6-6.
At the U.S. Open, a deciding set tied at 6-6 is settled by a first-to-10 match tiebreak, with a player required to win by two points. Keys seized that final race 10-5, which is reflected in the official 7-6(5) score line.
The WTA’s account of the match confirmed both the five saved match points and the 5-2 third-set deficit. The crowd’s energy grew as Keys extended the match, turning an outer-court struggle into one of the day’s defining scenes.
A comeback built on controlled aggression
Saving match points can look like pure nerve, but Keys’ escape was also a tactical reminder of what makes her dangerous. Her first-strike tennis gives her a way out even when an opponent is serving for the match: one clean return or one forehand can reset a point before pressure has time to settle in.
The same aggression carries obvious risk. Keys had already lost a tight first set, and Bondar repeatedly put her close enough to defeat that there was no room for another loose sequence. Yet Keys continued to swing through the ball rather than shrinking into defensive tennis.
Bondar’s near-upset deserves equal weight. Reaching five match points against a major champion is not a footnote, and the final score shows how little separated the players. The match was decided not by a dominant run but by Keys winning the handful of points that arrived after defeat appeared almost unavoidable.
Why the escape matters for Keys
Keys knows both the promise and the pressure of New York. She reached the U.S. Open final in 2017, losing to Sloane Stephens, and has remained one of the most recognizable American power players of her generation.
Her career gained its defining breakthrough at the 2025 Australian Open, where she captured her first Grand Slam singles championship. The WTA’s official profile lists Keys at No. 24 in the current singles rankings and records that major title among her career achievements.
That résumé made her the favorite against Bondar, but reputation offers no protection when an opponent is one point away. Keys’ comeback keeps her tournament alive while also supplying a vivid measure of competitive composure: she had to solve the same crisis five times before she could create an opening of her own.
One point can rewrite an entire match
The numbers tell the story cleanly: down 5-2, five match points saved, 34 forehand winners and a 10-5 deciding tiebreak. But the appeal of the match lies in the order of those numbers. Any one of the five match points could have ended Keys’ run. Instead, each became another step toward a comeback that seemed less plausible until, suddenly, it was complete.
For Bondar, it is a brutal illustration of how close a breakthrough can be without becoming a victory. For Keys, it is a second-round win that will be remembered like something much larger—because before she could advance at the U.S. Open, she had to refuse to leave it five different times.
