Teens steal Federer and Serena’s thunder

Bellis, Coric progress to second round along with tennis giants.

NEW YORK: Five-time champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams reached the US Open second round on Tuesday, but found themselves sharing headlines with teenage upstarts CiCi Bellis and Borna Coric.

Federer, playing in his 60th successive Grand Slam and bidding to become the oldest major winner in over 40 years, defeated Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) to register his 23rd win in 24 night matches in New York.

“It was a bit more difficult than I thought it was going to be in the third set. Marinko has a big game,” said second-seeded Federer.

Women’s world number one Serena, the double defending champion who is also seeking a sixth title, was equally untroubled, defeating 18-year-old compatriot Taylor Townsend 6-3, 6-1 in just 55 minutes.

“This was the first slam I ever won. I love coming out to play — I never want it to stop,” said Serena, who next tackles compatriot Vania King.

Meanwhile, Bellis, ranked at a lowly 1,208 and aged just 15, knocked out Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to become the youngest player to win a match at the US Open since Anna Kournikova in 1996.

“I went into the match thinking it was going to be such a great experience, but I never thought I would come out on top winning,” said Bellis who, as an amateur, had to pass up the $60,000 prize money to avoid jeopardising a college sports career.

Coric, the 17-year-old world number 204 who was junior champion in 2013, also made a stunning grand slam debut with a convincing 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 win over 29th-seeded Czech Lukas Rosol, the man who dumped Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon two years ago.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said qualifier Coric. “I said to myself, ‘If I achieve that, that’s going to be perfect’.”

Kvitova, Bouchard also through

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova breezed into the second round with a 6-1, 6-0 rout of French number 73 Kristina Mladenovic.



Canadian seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard eased past Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-2, 6-1 and former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic beat Alison Riske of the US 6-3, 6-0 in a tie which featured eight breaks of serve.

Australia’s Samantha Stosur, the 2011 champion, went through with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Lauren Davies of the US, while Victoria Azarenka, the runner-up to Serena for the last two years, defeated Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-1.

Two-time men’s semi-finalist David Ferrer, the Spanish fourth seed, was also a Tuesday winner, beating Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

America’s top hope in the men’s division, 13th seeded John Isner saw off compatriot Marcos Giron 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 7-6 (7/2).

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Aisamul Haq Qureshi crashed out of the US Open along with his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna after their first-round opponents Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi defeated them 7-6 (12/10), 4-6, 7-6 (7/5).

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2014.

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