Second seed Simona Halep crashes out of US Open

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni

New York, Aug 30 (IANS)

Croatian qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni upset second seeded Romanian Simona Halep 7-6(6), 6-2 in the women's singles third round at the US Open.

"It's incredible. It's just amazing," Lucic-Baroni said Friday, reports Xinhua.

Halep was once 5-2 in the first set, taking in hand three set points in the eighth game. Lucic-Baroni managed to come back with her strong shots afterwards, bringing the match to the tie-breaker and finishing the set.

Halep seemed to lose her rhythm in the second set and it only cost Lucic-Baroni less than half an hour to beat the World no. 2.

It was Lucic-Baroni's second win over a world top-five in her career. The previous one dated back to 1999 when she defeated Monica Seles at Wimbledon.

There was another upset as sixth seeded Angelique Kerber lost to Belinda Bencic 1-6, 5-7 in the US Open women’s singles third round.

The 17-year-old Swiss tennis player was the second youngest girl in the women’s singles. It was her US Open debut and she reached a Grand Slam fourth round for the first time, reports Xinhua. It was the first time Bencic beat a top-10 player.