Halep Ousted at Roland Garros

Simona Halep, a finalist at last year’s French Open, saw her Rolland Garros run come to an end in the second round on Wednesday at the hands of Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 7-5, 6-1.

Lucic-Baroni got off to a fast start in the opening set, jumping to leads of 3-1 and 5-3. But each time, Halep would respond to even the frame. Lucic-Baroni then picked it up and became very aggressive, allowing her to win the next two games to take the opener.

With momentum in her corner, the world number 70 pounced all over Halep. She won the opening five games of the second set to take command, and eventually closed out the upset with a massive ace.

“It’s incredible. Simona is such a great champion, and I respect her so much, and to play this well on such a big stadium makes me so happy,” said Lucic-Baroni. “She’s such a great champion so I knew if I wanted to win I had to go for my shots, and that’s my game anyway, so I just tried to keep going for it and tried to keep my unforced errors down as well. I’m proud of myself—it’s such a huge win for me, it’s just amazing.”

Lucic-Baroni also beat Halep at last year’s U.S. Open. She will take on 29th seeded Alize Cornet of France who beat Alexandra Dulgheru 6-2, 7-5.

Defending Roland Garros champion Maria Sharapova made her way into the third round Wednesday, beating Vitalia Diatchenko 6-3, 6-1. Sharapova had just eight unforced errors compared to 24 winners which allowed her to withstand the hard-hitting of Diatchenko. She will play Australian Samantha Stosur next, who crushed France’s Amandine Hesse 6-0, 6-1.

“She has a very heavy ball, and I think on clay specifically it just really penetrates through the court,” Sharapova said of Stosur. “The spin she’s able to create from her forehand and her serve, she has one of the best kick serves in the game. She’s really able to put that power into it and kick. She also slices a lot. There are a lot of untraditional things she does, but I guess I enjoy the challenge of playing her. I have a pretty good record against her. I enjoy our matches. I hope I can continue that.”