No. 1 Halep stumbles in historic US Open upset

4:02 pm | August 27, 2018 | Go to Source | Author:

7:37 PM ET

ESPN News Services

NEW YORK — Simona Halep made a quick-as-can-be exit from the US Open on Monday, becoming the first No. 1-seeded woman to lose her opening match at the Grand Slam tournament in the half-century of the professional era.

Halep simply was overwhelmed by the power-based game of 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, falling 6-2, 6-4 in a match that was stunningly lopsided and lasted all of 76 minutes.

It was the first match at the rebuilt Louis Armstrong Stadium, which now has a retractable roof, and what a way to get things started. That cover was not needed to protect from rain on Day 1 at the year’s final major tournament — although some protection from the bright sun and its 90-degree (33-degree Celsius) heat might have been appreciated.

In other women’s matches Monday, Venus Williams defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in a matchup of past US Open champions, and defending champion Sloane Stephens defeated Evgeniya Rodina of Russia 6-1, 7-5.

Williams, the No. 16 seed and a semifinalist last year at Flushing Meadows, could play younger sister Serena in the third round. That would be their earliest Grand Slam matchup in 20 years.

Serena Williams, a six-time US Open champion, was slated to play later Monday against Magda Linette in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Since professionals were admitted to the Grand Slam tournaments in 1968, only five women who were seeded No. 1 lost their opening match at a major — and never before had it happened at the US Open. It happened twice to Martina Hingis and once to Steffi Graf at Wimbledon, once to Angelique Kerber at the French Open and once to Virginia Ruzici at the Australian Open.

Halep won the French Open in June for her first Grand Slam title and is assured of remaining at No. 1 after the US Open, even with her first-round departure. She got off to a slow start at Roland Garros this year, too, dropping her opening set, also by a 6-2 score, but ended up pulling out the victory there and adding six more to lift the trophy.

There would be no such turnaround for her against Kanepi, a big hitter who dictated the points to claim her second career win against a top-ranked player. Kanepi has shown the occasional ability to grab significant results, including a run to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows a year ago — when Halep also lost in the first round.

Halep’s 2017 defeat came against five-time major champion Maria Sharapova, though. Kanepi is simply not that caliber of player.

On this day, though, Kanepi took charge of baseline exchanges, compiling a 26-9 edge in winners, 14 on her favored forehand side alone. Wearing two strips of athletic tape on her left shoulder, the right-handed Kanepi also had far more unforced errors, 28-9, but that high-risk, high-reward style ultimately paid off.

“Staying aggressive,” Kanepi said, “all the time.”

Early in the second set, on the way to falling behind by two breaks at 3-0, Halep slammed her racket twice, drawing a warning for a code violation from the chair umpire.

Eventually, Halep got going a bit, taking advantage of Kanepi’s mistakes to break back twice and get to 4-all in that set.

But Kanepi ended a 14-stroke exchange with a crosscourt forehand volley winner to break right back, then served out the victory.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.