Tournament No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki has been dumped out of the US Open after a shock 6-4 6-2 loss to Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko.

It marked the second consecutive year that the Dane, twice a US Open finalist, has failed to advance past this stage at Flushing Meadows.

The second round has been a sore point for Wozniacki of late with the former world No.1 winning just once since Eastbourne in June, falling in the second round at Wimbledon and US Open tuneup events in Montreal and Cincinnati.

Following world No.1 Simona Halep’s first round exit, defending champion Sloane Stephens becomes the highest remaining seed in the women’s draw at No.3.

Earlier Wimbledon champion and world No.4 Angelique Kerber held off a powerful challenge by Sweden’s Johanna Larsson to advance to the third round.

Larsson, ranked 83rd, mounted a rally after falling behind 4-1 in the second set and fended off two match points at 5-3 before winning four straight games to steal the second set 7-5.

But Kerber, the 2016 US Open champion, finally stopped Larsson’s momentum in the third set, breaking her to go up 5-4, then served out the gruelling match to win 6-2 5-7 6-4 in more than two hours.

“I think we both really played on a really high level from the first point,” Kerber said.

“In the end it was one or two points to decide the match.”

Hard-hitting Czech Petra Kvitova also advanced to the third round, defeating China’s Yafan Wang 7-5 6-3 to keep her dream of winning a third grand slam title alive.

The fifth seed converted five of seven break points and fired down four aces to send 24-year-old Wang packing in a match that lasted just under two hours on another hot and humid day at Flushing Meadows.