Early exit for top seed Halep as Watson also falls at first hurdle

Simona Halep’s US Open campaign lasted just an hour and 15 minutes yesterday as she became the first women’s top seed in the Open era to lose in the first round.

The French Open champion arrived at Flushing Meadows as one of the hot favourites and declared herself free of pressure after breaking her grand slam duck at Roland Garros.

But it did not appear that way against Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi, one of the biggest hitters in the game, who blasted her way to a 6-2 6-4 victory.

Kanepi has an impressive grand slam pedigree having reached six quarter-finals, including here last year, when she progressed to the last eight as a qualifier after injury problems had seen her drop down the rankings.

Nothing in her results this season suggested she was about to derail a confident Halep but the Romanian, who lost to Maria Sharapova at the same stage last year, knew what a potentially tricky draw it was and so it proved.

Kanepi tightened up in the second set, seeing a 3-0 lead wiped out at 4-4, but she kept swinging for the lines and, after breaking Halep for the fifth time, confidently served out one of the wins of her life.

The good news for Halep is she is guaranteed to hold onto the world number one ranking having established a solid lead over her rivals.

“I didn’t play great, but she played really well. I knew that she can play well here,” she said.

“Today just was not my day, the balance was not there. I couldn’t feel myself strong on the court to win this match. It is tough. But it’s OK.”

Meanwhile, Heather Watson lost in the first round for the eighth successive year, going down 6-1 3-6 6-3 to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.

Watson won her first senior matches at Flushing Meadows to come through qualifying but was unable to follow that up with a first main-draw win.

It was a tough draw against the experienced Makarova, who seems to bring her best in grand slams.

Watson had not won a set in round one here since 2013 and showed good fighting spirit to recover from 1-3 to push the match into a deciding set.

But Makarova halted the British player’s momentum and served out the victory.