NEW YORK: The US Open women’s draw was blown wide open by a series of upsets on Friday as Simona Halep and Venus Williams tumbled out but it was business as usual on the men’s side with Roger Federer leading a parade of seeds into the third round at the year’s final Grand Slam.

The shockwaves began early on another sunny day at Flushing Meadows with 32-year-old qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni dismissing Romanian second seed Halep 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 to reach the fourth round.

Lucic-Baroni, who failed to build on her run to the 1999 Wimbledon semi-finals, was almost overcome by the victory.

“I mean, I’m a little bit emotional now. Sorry,” she said, wiping away tears. “It’s been really hard. After so many years to be here again, it’s incredible. I wanted this so bad. So many times I would get to ... a place where I could do it. “Then I wanted it so bad that I’m kind of burned out. I’m so happy.”

The reward for the 121st-ranked Lucic-Baroni is a fourth-round meeting with 13th-seeded Italian Sara Errani, who thwarted twice champion and 19th seed Venus 6-0, 0-6, 7-6 (7-5) in an absorbing roller-coaster clash.

“I know that was a really tough match, even if I won the first set 6-0 she’s an amazing player,” Errani said.

Venus, 34, is dealing with an autoimmune disease, and hasn’t been to the fourth round at a major since 2011. She also played a doubles match Thursday with her sister Serena that lasted about two and a half hours.

“I guess the schedule definitely wasn’t ideal,” Venus said. “It was just such a late match.”

After losing to Errani, Venus went on court again for doubles and won that one, although she was treated by a trainer.

The tremors continued at the US National Tennis Centre as Swiss teen Belinda Bencic ousted sixth-seeded German Angelique Kerber 6-1, 7-5 to reach the round of 16 in her US Open debut.

Bencic, the 2013 Wimbledon and French Open junior champion, now ranked 58th in the world, earned a meeting with former world number one Jelena Jankovic, a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Sweden’s Johanna Larsson.

China’s Peng Shuai, showing no sign of a let-down after her second-round win over fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, dispatched another seeded player in number 28 Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3. She set up a meeting with 14th-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova, a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 winner over France’s Alize Cornet.

By the time fifth seed Maria Sharapova had closed out the action under the Arthur Ashe Stadium floodlights with a laboured 6-2, 6-4 win over Germany’s Sabine Lisicki the top of the women’s draw had lost four of the top eight seeds.

The men’s draw, in contrast, has gone pretty much to form.

Second-seeded Federer’s 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Australia’s Sam Groth at night closed the second round as Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer, sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych and seventh-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov all advanced on Friday.

The highest-ranked casualty was Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, the 11th seed, who was ousted by 45th-ranked Dominic Thiem of Austria 4-6, 3-6, 6-4 6-3, 6-3.

Ferrer reached the third round without lifting his racquet when unpredictable Aussie Bernard Tomic withdrew with a hip injury.

Berdych needed five sets but got the job done against Slovakian Martin Klizan 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and Wimbledon semi-finalist Dimitrov continued his best-ever US Open with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Israeli Dudi Sela.

Richard Gasquet, seeded 12th, and Gael Monfils, 20th, advanced in straight sets to set up an all-French collision for a berth in the fourth round.

Working harder was 18th-seeded South African Kevin Anderson, a four-set winner against Jerzy Janowicz of Poland, while Spain’s 19th seed Feliciano Lopez won a fourth-set tiebreaker to advance past Japanese qualifier Tatsuma Ito.

Published in Dawn, August 31th, 2014