44th-ranked Kaia Kanepi upsets top-seeded Simona Halep at U.S. Open
NEW YORK — Some players, like 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-as-can-be exit Monday, overwhelmed by the power-based game of Kanepi 6-2, 6-4 to become the first top-seeded woman to lose her opening match at the U.S. Open in the half-century of the professional era.
Halep blamed opening-round jitters, and that has been a recurring theme throughout her career.