Simona Halep became the first No. 1 female seed to lose in the first round in U.S. Open Open Era history on Monday. Estonian Kaia Kanepi upset her 6-2, 6-4 in the tournament’s first match at the new Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The U.S. Open had been the only Grand Slam where the top-seeded woman won her opening match every year of the 50-year Open Era.
The dubious upset happened three times at Wimbledon (Steffi Graf (1994), Martina Hingis (1999 and 2001) and once each at the Australian Open (Virginia Ruzici (1979)) and French Open (Angelique Kerber (2017)).