No. 2 Simona Halep of Romania lost her serve and lost her nerve against Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on Friday in the third round of the U.S. Open. “I feel like a little kid, like this is the first time ever happening,” said Lucic-Baroni, who reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 15 years.
No. 2 Simona Halep of Romania lost her serve and lost her nerve against Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on Friday in the third round of the U.S. Open. “I feel like a little kid, like this is the first time ever happening,” said Lucic-Baroni, who reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 15 years.Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Weather: Comfortable and mostly sunny. High of 79.

Attendance: NA.

Men’s Seeded Winners: Second Round – No. 4 David Ferrer, No. 6 Tomas Berdych, No. 7 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 12 Richard Gasquet, No. 14 Marin Cilic, No. 17 Roberto Bautista Agut, No. 18 Kevin Anderson, No. 19 Feliciano Lopez, No. 20 Gael Monfils and No. 26 Gilles Simon.

Men’s Seeded Losers: No. 11 Ernests Gulbis, No. 15 Fabio Fognini and No. 32 Joao Sousa.

Women’s Seeded Winners: Third Round: No. 9 Jelena Jankovic, No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 13 Sara Errani and No. 14 Lucie Safarova.

Women’s Seeded Losers: No. 2 Simona Halep, No. 6 Angelique Kerber, No. 18 Andrea Petkovic, No. 19 Venus Williams, No. 22 Alize Cornet and No. 28 Roberta Vinci.

Top Players on Saturday’s Court: Men, Third Round – No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. Sam Querrey, No. 3 Stan Wawrinka vs. Blaz Kavcic, No. 5 Milos Raonic vs. Victor Estrella Burgos, No. 8 Andy Murray vs. Andrey Kuznetsov, Women, Third Round – No. 1 Serena Williams vs. Varvara Lepchenko, No. 3 Petra Kvitova vs. Aleksandra Krunic, No. 7 Eugenie Bouchard vs. No. 30 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, No. 16 Victoria Azarenka vs. Elena Vesnina.

Stat of the Day: 52 – unforced errors by Venus Williams in her loss to Errani.

Quote of the Day: “I feel like a little kid, like this is the first time ever happening,” said Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 15 years.

Saturday on TV: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., KCNC, KREZ; 5-9 p.m., Tennis Channel.

On This Date (Aug. 30, 1988): Teenagers Jim Courier and Pete Sampras made their U.S. Open debuts. Courier beat Horst Skoff, while Sampras lost to Jaime Yzaga.

Associated Press