Second-seeded Halep loses to qualifier at US Open

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

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.