Kerber suffers shock US Open defeat by Cibulkova

American ace Sloane Stephens is the only top four seed left in the US Open after Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber was knocked out in the third round.

Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber has been eliminated from the US Open, the last of this season’s Grand Slam winners left in the tournament.

Slovak Dominika Cibulkova rallied on Saturday to beat the German 3-6 6-3 6-3, leaving only one of the top-four seeds on the women’s side in the tournament after three rounds.

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Top-ranked Simona Halep, the French Open champion, was eliminated in the first round. Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki, the second seed, fell in the second.

Only third seed and defending champion Sloane Stephens remains among the top-four seeds.

“It feels pretty good and special,” said Cibulkova. “This year I lost to Angelique twice, and even during those matches, I was playing pretty solid. I was playing pretty fine. She just didn’t give me any chance.

“We had to change something, and I think we had the great tactic with my coach, and I was able to do it. It was something that I don’t usually do, but I was able to do it and it was working 100 percent.”

American hopeful Madison Keys rallied after dropping the first set to beat Aleksandra Krunic 4-6 6-1 6-2 on Saturday.

The world No.14 lost to Sloane Stephens in the US Open final last year and lost to her again this year in the French Open semi-finals.

Keys looked out of sorts in the first set but she was resilient the rest of the way and won 12 of the last 15 games.

Sixth seed Caroline Garcia suffered a surprise 5-7 6-4 7-6(45) defeat by Spanish 30th seed Carla Suarez Navarro, and there was an also upset at Louis Armstrong Stadium as in-form Belgian Kiki Bertens fell to Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova.

Bertens has had an excellent season and defeated Simona Halep to win the title in Cincinnati two weeks ago.

That put her among the contenders for the title in an open women’s draw, but she was unable to overcome 19-year-old Vondrousova, who won a deciding tie-break for a 7-6(4) 2-6 7-6(1) victory.

One woman who had no trouble making round four was Japan’s 20th seed Naomi Osaka, a 6-0 6-0 winner over Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.