Cici Bellis vs. Shelby Rogers

When people think about American Tennis these days, the Pete Sampras’ & Andre Agassi’s are long gone. The Billie Jean King’s & Chris Evert’s are even more of a distant memory on the women’s side. The face of American tennis for the past 20 or so years has been all about two sisters from Compton, CA, Venus & Serena Williams.

Now that both of them are in their mid 30’s, and towards the twilight of their careers, respectively, US tennis officials have quietly been panicking about who is going to carry the torch, once both Williams sisters retire. Madison Keys has the power of Serena, but she lacks the overall game, at this point in her career, to be “thee next face of US Tennis.” Today, however, we focus on someone quite a bit younger, also from California, who made a big splash on the US Open two years ago. CiCi Bellis won her first grand slam match at the US Open at only 15-years-old! Now, at the ripe old age of 17, she goes to battle against compatriot Shelby Rogers in the new Grandstand. Bellis has been maturing this summer, she won two matches in Stanford, won 3 qualifying matches at the US Open, and won her first round match here against Viktorija Golubic, the 65th ranked Swiss player. Today, the 17-year-old Cinderella story will face the older, more mature, higher-ranked, and bigger hitting Shelby Rogers, who’s made a big splash for US Tennis lately, in her own right. Rogers made a big run to the quarters at Roland Garros this spring, knocking off the likes of Pliskova, Vesnina, Kvitova, and Begu, before losing to the eventual 2016 French Open winner, Garbine Muguruza. Bellis & Rogers have played once this season, on clay at the Indian Harbour Beach ITF Tournament, where Shelby got the best of the 17-year-old Bellis in 3 sets. I think we’ll see another fun match this afternoon, with both ladies getting lots of support from the crowd. This match isn’t about the world number 49 vs. the world ranked number 158th woman, it’s about the possible future of US Tennis going to battle in the new Grandstand, at the final grand slam of 2016, in New York City!