Halep, a finalist last year, upset early at French Open
PARIS — Simona Halep’s loss at the French Open on Wednesday was a delayed aftershock.
Halep, a finalist at Roland Garros last year, fell 7-5, 6-1 to 70th-ranked Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, the player who stunned Halep in similar fashion in the third round of the U.S. Open last year.
Halep, the No. 3 seed, received medical attention for her right ring finger late in the first set but seemed to struggle more with her tactics and resilience, keeping the ball comfortably in Lucic-Baroni’s strike zone in the middle of the court and allowing her to tee off.
As Lucic-Baroni’s match-winning ace zoomed past Halep, the 33-year-old Croat dropped her racket and turned to her friends and family behind her, shouting, “How is this possible?” in celebration.
Until Halep’s collapse, it had been a day of favorites marching easily into the third round. Secondseeded Maria Sharapova, who beat Halep to win the title here last year, defeated her fellow Russian Vitalia Diatchenko 6-3, 6-1.
That win puts Sharapova in the third round against Samantha Stosur, a French Open finalist in 2010. Stosur surrendered one game in a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing of French wildcard Amandine Hesse.
Roger Federer appeared well prepared for his match against Marcel Granollers, winning, 6-2, 7-6 (1), 6-3.
Federer’s Davis Cup teammate Stan Wawrinka also advanced, beating Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.