1 AND DONE
win against a top-ranked player — but first top-20 victory since 2015. Kanepi has shown the occasional ability to grab significant results, including a run to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows a year ago.
On this day, Kanepi took charge of baseline exchanges, compiling a 26-9 edge in winners, 14 on her favored forehand side alone. Wearing two strips of athletic tape on her left shoulder, the right-handed Kanepi also had far more unforced errors, 28-9, but that high-risk, high-reward style ultimately paid off.
“I thought, ‘I just have to be aggressive and try to stay calm,’” Kanepi said.
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, getting a lot of support from fans who repeatedly chanted her first name.
“I was thinking about that: Why (did) they cheer so much for her? Because normally, they cheer for the underdog,” Kanepi said with a smile. “It was a bit annoying for some time, but I got over it.”
Sure did. She ended a 14-stroke exchange with a cross-court forehand volley winner to break right back for a 5-4 lead, then served out the victory.
In other early results, three men’s seeds were bounced, too: 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 swept by Jason Kubler. Winners included a pair of Americans, No. 18 Jack Sock, who had lost eight consecutive matches including one in qualifying, and No. 11 John Isner.
Halep — who could have faced Serena or Venus Williams in the fourth round — was joined on the way out of the women’s draw by No. 31 Magdalena Rybarikova, while No. 7 Elina Svitolina and two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza advanced.