Here we go again... top seed Halep falls

IT TOOK less than two hours for the carnage among the women’s seeds seen at Wimbledon to spread seamlessly into the US Open. At SW19 none of the top 10 seeds made the quarter-finals and in New York, world No 1 Simona Halep became the first top seed in the 50-year Open era to go out in the first round here. Becoming so frustrated that she hurled her racket into the asphalt, the French Open champion went out 6-2, 6-4 to 33-year-old Estonian Kaia Kanepi, the world No 44. Halep came in having won the Canadian Open and made the Cincinnati final. ‘I was tired but positive because I played so many matches in Montreal and Cincinnati,’ she said. ‘I didn’t feel the pressure after winning a Grand Slam, it was just a bad day.’ Heather Watson’s hopes of winning her first ever main-draw match at Flushing Meadows were extinguished as her curiously awful record here continued with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 defeat by Ekaterina Makarova of Russia. Jo Konta is the only British woman left and today she has the awkward task of facing sixth seed Caroline Garcia of France.