Halep sent packing in first-round upset

Simona Halep made a quick-ascan-be exit from the US Open in New York, 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.

On a day when men’s defending champion Rafael Nadal, Venus and Serena Williams and former champion Andy Murray all advanced to the second round, Halep was overwhelmed by the power-based game of 44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 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.

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 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 calibre of player. On this day, though, Kanepi took charge of baseline exchanges, compiling a 26-9 edge in winners, 14 on her favoured forehand side alone.

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 cross-court forehand volley winner to break right back, then served out the victory.