Staff Reporter.
Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep made the most of a change in schedule to win her US Open second-round match for the first time since 2016 on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Romanian Halep, 29, has struggled with injuries this year but comfortably beat Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova 6-3 6-1.
She was moved from an outside court on Wednesday after defending champion Naomi Osaka was handed a walkover.
Playing under a roof, Halep was able to avoid the rain which interrupted several other matches.
“I was a little bit lucky to play here with the roof,” said the 12th seed, who will face Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan or Caroline Garcia of France in the third round.
Osaka’s defence of the US Open title continued after Serbian opponent Olga Danilovic pulled out of their second-round match.
About an hour before the pair were set to walk out on Arthur Ashe Stadium, organisers announced Danilovic, 20, had withdrawn for medical reasons.
Third seed Osaka will play Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi or Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the third round on Friday.
The Japanese player, 23, is aiming for her third US Open title in four years.
It is her first Grand Slam event since pulling out of the French Open earlier this year, when the four-time major champion revealed she had “suffered long bouts of depression” since winning the 2018 US Open.
On Monday, she claimed a straight-set win against Czech opponent Marie Bouzkova in the first round.
Danilovic, who is mentored by her compatriot Novak Djokovic, said on Instagram she had been dealing with a “non-Covid related viral illness”.
Elsewhere, Spanish two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza defeated German Andrea Petkovic 6-4 6-2 and will take on Belarusian Victoria Azarenka or Italian Jasmine Paolini in the third round.