Simona Halep has been dumped from the Australian Open in the first round (VIDEO)
Women's fourth seed Simona Halep has been dumped from the Australian Open after a straight-sets loss to Shelby Rogers.
Halep suffered the ignominy of being the first major shock of the tournament, going down 6-3, 6-1 to the American world number 52.
It was a sorry case of deja vu for Halep, who also crashed out in the opening round last year.
Despite spending the Christmas period in Australia acclimatising to the hot summer conditions with coach Darren Cahill, the Romanian looked uncomfortable from the outset.
She required medication after dropping the first set, but it did not help as she won just one game in the second.
"For me, in the second set, [it] was difficult to move anymore, but she deserved to win. She was aggressive, and she hit very strong, the balls," Halep said after the match.
A French Open quarter-finalist last year, Rogers will play either Australian wildcard Ashleigh Barty or German Annika Beck on Wednesday for a place in the last 32.
"I'm happy to get through and I'll take confidence out of what I did today," Rogers said.
Source: ABC