Simona Halep’s US Open campaign lasted just an hour and 15 minutes as she became the first women’s top seed in the Open era to lose in the first round.
The French Open champion was sent crashing out by big-hitting Estonian Kaia Kanepi who chalked up a 6-2 6-4 win over the Romanian world No.1.
Kanepi has an impressive grand slam pedigree having reached six quarter-finals, including here last year, when she progressed to the last eight as a qualifier after injury problems had seen her drop down the rankings.
Nothing in her results this season suggested she was about to derail a confident Halep but the Romanian, who lost to Maria Sharapova at the same stage last year, knew what a potentially tricky draw it was and so it proved.
Kanepi tightened up in the second set, seeing a 3-0 lead wiped out at 4-4, but she kept swinging for the lines and, after breaking Halep for the fifth time, confidently served out the biggest win of her career.