Halep is No. 1 and done
Jitters get the best of French Open champ in loss to No. 44 Kanepi
Rogers Cup champion Simona Halep becomes the first top-seeded woman to lose opener at U.S. Open.
Some players, like top-ranked Simona Halep, freely acknowledge they don’t deal well with the hustle-and-bustle of the U.S. Open and all it entails.
Others, like 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi, take to the Big Apple and its Grand Slam tournament.
Put those two types at opposite ends of a court at Flushing Meadows and watch what can happen: Halep made a quick-as-can-be exit Monday, overwhelmed by the power-based game of Kanepi 6-2, 6-4 to become the first No. 1-seeded woman to lose her opening match at the U.S. Open in the half-century of the professional era.
Halep blamed opening-round jitters, and that has been a recurring theme throughout her career.
The reigning French Open champion has now lost her first match at 12 of 34 career major appearances, a stunningly high rate for such an accomplished player.
“It’s always about the nerves,” said Halep, who was beaten in the first round in New York by five-time major champion Maria Sharapova in 2017.
“Even when you are there in the top, you feel the same nerves. You are human.”
She also offered up an explanation tied to this site. “Maybe the noise in the crowd. The city is busy. So everything together,” said Halep, who was coming off consecutive runs to the final at hardcourt tune-up tournaments at Cincinnati and Montreal.
“I’m a quiet person, so maybe I like the smaller places.”
It was the first match at the rebuilt Louis Armstrong Stadium, which now has about 14,000 seats and 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 last major tournament — although some protection from the bright sun and its 90-degree (33-degree Celsius) heat might have been in order.
“The courts suit my game, and I love being in New York. I like the city,” said Kanepi, who is from Estonia and is sharing a coach this week with another player, Andrea Petkovic. “I like the weather: humid and hot.”
In other early results, three men’s seeds were bounced, too: No. 8 Grigor Dimitrov lost to three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka in the first round for a second consecutive major, No. 16 Kyle Edmund was beaten by Paolo Lorenzi, and No. 19 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain was swept by Jason Kubler. Winners included a pair of Americans, No. 18 Jack Sock, who had lost eight consecutive matches including one in qualifying, and No. 11 John Isner.
Halep — who could have faced Serena or Venus Williams in the fourth round — was joined on the way out of the women’s draw by No. 31 Magdalena Rybarikova, while No. 7 Elina Svitolina and two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza advanced.