Tennis – US Open ’18: Simona Halep Knocked Out
World number one Simona Halep turned into the first top-seeded female tennis player to lose in the US Open’s initial round, tumbling to a 6-2, 6-4 loss against Kaia Kanepi.
The 26-year-old Romanian’s serve was broken five times in the primary match on the new Louis Armstrong Stadium. She battled once more from a double break down to 4-4 in the second set yet the Estonian broke again before Halep sent a forehand long on match point.
Stunner!
The match point that sent world No. 1 Simona Halep home in the first round of the #USOpen: pic.twitter.com/YqpiVR0Iyt
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) 27 August 2018
This is not the first time that Halep has faced defeat as she had also lost her opening match at Flushing Meadows a year ago. The French Open hero was beaten by Maria Sharapova in New York in 2017.
Prior to Simona Halep’s thrashing, no women’s best seed had lost in the opening round at the US Open since the professional tournament started in 1968, that year that the competition was given its present name, having beforehand been known as the US National Championships.
Ten: Unbelievable! @Simona_Halep becomes first @WTA No 1 to lose in Rd 1 @usopen crashing 26 46 to Estonian veteran @KanepiKaia & blowing a head-gasket along the way! #usopen More with me on @MacquarieSport #EarlyMorningShow coming up!
— NEIL EVANS (@NeilEvansmail) 27 August 2018
World number 44 Kanepi, achieved the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows a year ago yet has had a progression of injury issues as of late.
positively or Negatively a record is set already.. congratulation to @simona_halep for becoming the 1st female world number to gets knocked out in the 1st round of US Open and 1st player to lose in new Louis Armstrong Stadium!
— IKUJUNI IBUKUN SAMUEL (Sam Ore) (@TheSamOre) 27 August 2018
Simona Halep has played in 34 Grand Slam tournaments and lost in the first round in 12 of them, including this year’s US Open to Kaia Kanepi. Can’t remember any established No. 1 with that sort of rollercoaster record at the Slams
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) 27 August 2018
For more updates keep visiting allsportspk
