Nerves trip Halep in 1st-round upset
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LPGA Cambia Portland Classic, first round 3:00 7:00 NEW YORK — Some players, such as 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-ascan-be exit Monday, overwhelmed by the powerbased 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 openinground 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 hard-court tuneup tournaments at Cincinnati and Montreal. “I’m a quiet person, so maybe I like the smaller places.”
Kanepi took charge of baseline exchanges, compiling a 26-9 edge in winners, 14 on her favored forehand side alone.
“I thought, ‘I just have to be aggressive and try to stay calm,’ ” Kanepi said.
In other early results, three men’s seeds were bounced: 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 eliminated by Jason Kubler. Winners included a pair of Americans, No. 18 Jack Sock and No. 11 John Isner.