By Chris Oddo | Tuesday August 8, 2017
CiCi Bellis battled past Julia Goerges in three sets to set up a second-round clash with Svetlana Kuznetsova in Toronto.
Photo Source: Ezra Shaw/Getty
18-year-old American CiCi Bellis made it sweet 16 WTA victories in 2017 with a come from behind 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Julia Goerges at the Rogers Cup in Toronto on Tuesday.
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Bellis, playing at a career-high ranking of No.36 in the world, improves to an impressive 12-4 against the Top 50 and avenges a straight-sets drubbing at the hands of Goerges on the grass at Mallorca earlier this summer.
It’s been a steady rise for the Northern California native this year. At her home event in Stanford last week she took out Petra Kvitova and reached the semifinals. Bellis may be undersized at 5’7” but she is an exemplary fighter that plays an aggressive, poised brand of tennis. She is emerging as one of the most fierce and focused fighters in the game and what she lacks in power (not much, really) she makes up with pursuit.
She saved six of nine break points and won 72 percent of her first-serve points to clinch victory in one hour and 53 minutes.
Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard was not so lucky on Tuesday as she was dispatched by qualifier Donna Vekic, 6-3, 6-4.
Bouchard has now dropped five of her last six matches and falls to 10-15 on the season; Vekic was making her main draw debut and will face Angelique Kerber in the second round.
In other action on Tuesday, No. 10-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska knocked off American CoCo Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-2. Radwanska saved all five break points she faced and pulled off the type of shots that can make her a real terror to face.
Such as…
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (d. Cornet), Ekaterina Makarova (d. Peng), No.16-seeded Elena Vesnina (d. Riske), Caroline Garcia (d. Cirstea) and Ashleigh Barty (d. Dodin RET) were also winners on Tuesday at Toronto.