NEW YORK (AP) — Second-seeded Simona Halep’s recent run of Grand Slam success ended with a third-round exit at the U.S. Open against a 32-year-old qualifier ranked 121st.
Halep, the runner-up at the French Open and a semifinalist at Wimbledon, had seven-double faults and only 17 winners in a 7-6 (6), 6-2 loss to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia.
Halep was trying to make the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the second year in a row.
But Lucic-Baroni outplayed her, totaling 31 winners, to get back to the fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since she was a Wimbledon semifinalist as a teenager in 1999.
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