The US Open women’s draw has been blown wide open as world No.2 Simona Halep, sixth seed Angelique Kerber and two-time champion Venus Williams tumbled out of the third round.
Two players at opposite ends of the tennis age spectrum authored the upsets of the day.
Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, a former phenom now a 32-year-old veteran who had to fight through qualifying, shocked second-seeded Halep, the French Open runner-up, 7-6 (8-6) 6-2.
And 17-year-old Swiss Belinda Bencic toppled Germany’s Kerber 6-1 7-5.
The reward for world No.121 Lucic-Baroni is a fourth-round meeting with 13th-seeded Italian Sara Errani, who thwarted Williams 6-0 0-6 7-6 (7-5).
“It’s incredible, amazing, I feel goofy,” said Lucic-Baroni, who reached a grand slam fourth round for the first time since making it to the 1999 Wimbledon semi-finals as a 17-year-old.
Her life went into freefall after she revealed she was abused by her father, Marinko, and in recent seasons her career has been a struggle to support herself, train and find a way to re-establish herself on tour.
“Every painful moment has been worth it,” said Lucic-Baroni, who rallied from 2-5 down to steal the first set then dominated in the second – sealing the match with back-to-back aces.
“I knew what I had to do and I was able to do it,” said Lucic-Baroni, who broke down in tears later reflecting on her journey. “I worked so hard for this.”
Bencic, the 2013 Wimbledon and French Open junior champion, now ranked 58th in the world, earned a meeting with former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic for a place in the quarter-finals.
“It’s amazing that after last year I played juniors here, and this year I’m in the fourth round,” Bencic said.
The last grand slam of the year has now lost four of it’s top 10 women’s seeds, after the second-round departures of Agnieszka Radwanska and Ana Ivanovic.
Errani’s triumph over 19th-seeded Williams wasn’t strictly speaking an upset, but the 13th-seeded Italian had to dig deep to notch her first career victory over the American after three defeats.
“I know that was a really tough match, even if I won the first set 6-0 she’s an amazing player,” Errani said.
China’s Peng Shuai, showing no sign of a let-down after her second-round win over Radwanska, dispatched another seeded player in world No.28 Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-3.
Ninth-seeded Jankovic, whose only grand slam final appearance was a runner-up finish at Flushing Meadows in 2008, was never in danger in a 6-1 6-0 victory over Sweden’s Johanna Larsson.
