A shriek rang out in Arthur Ashe Stadium. By the time it was over, the underdog-loving fans at the US Open had drowned Ana Ivanovic out. For the 34th time Thursday afternoon, she had hit an unforced error. And for the first time in the open era, a No.1 women’s seed was out of the US Open before the third round.

Julie Coin, a 25-year-old qualifier from France, needed three tries at match point to finally overcome Ivanovic, the top-ranked player in the world, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, in 1 hour 57 minutes.

“I don’t realise yet that I beat the No.1 player in the world,” she said during her post-match news conference. “I don’t realise yet that I played on the big court. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep tonight.”

Ranked 187 spots below Ivanovic, Coin was barely playing on the same tour. She has never won a WTA title because she spends most of her time on the Challenger tour. She had never qualified for the main singles draw of a Grand Slam event until this US Open. Her record in singles this year, after Thursday’s upset, stands at 19-18. Coming into the Open, her career winnings amounted to $99,563. When Ivanovic won the French Open in June, she took home $1.39 million.

Ivanovic was unrecognisable from the player who won on clay at Roland Garros. But as the top seed at Wimbledon, she lost in the third round, and she has been bothered by a thumb injury for most of the summer hardcourt season.

But on Thursday she played down the impact of the injury saying that the only reason she might have been nervous was that she had never seen Coin play. “So I didn’t know what to expect,” she said.

Ivanovic could hardly be blamed. Even Amélie Mauresmo, who grew up in the same region as Coin and will now face her in the third round, knew little about her. In recent days, the French news media had even written that Mauresmo would not know what Coin looked like. So this morning, Mauresmo said after beating Kaia Kanepi, she sought her out. “Are you the one I don’t recognize?” Mauresmo said she asked Coin.

The French news media made sure that Coin, whose name means “corner” in French, immediately became a household name there. On its website, the sports daily L’Equipe had already flashed the headline, “Un Coin de Paradis” — “A Corner of Heaven.”

NYT NEWS SERVICE