Olympic champ Zheng back in the hunt - and US Open third round

Zheng Qinwen flopped to the court then jumped up in a fist-pumping celebration Thursday after battling into the US Open third round, the 2024 Olympic gold medallist relishing the return of her game — and her competitive fire.

The former world number four endured an injury-plagued 2025 that included a longer than anticipated recovery from elbow surgery.

She missed the Australian Open and has struggled to regain her form, and the mindset of a champion.

“Before the surgery, for me winning is like drinking water — everything comes natural, everything comes fluent,” Zheng said after beating Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 to reach the third round.

“After my surgery, I had some tough matches against the best players in the world (and) I’m close but I don’t get them.

“I totally lost the dynamic of how to compete.

“Now after two, three months I really felt the first time in this tournament I find myself, I found my fire back during the competition.”

Zheng sank so far in the rankings that she had to go through qualifying to book her US Open berth.

She grudgingly acknowledged that grinding through the qualifiers may have helped her regain her competitive edge — but that didn’t really take the sting away.

“It takes a while for me to accept my ranking dropped to 125 and, OK, I need to actually play qualies,” she said.

Now she’s in the thick of the main draw and will face former Australian Open champion Keys for a place in the last 16.

Zheng is looking forward to the test — and likely a chance to step back onto one of the main show courts of Flushing Meadows after toiling through two rounds on the outside courts.

“I used to always play on the big court,” she said. “I need to fight to get everything back.”