The 15-year-old San Francisco sensation CiCi Bellis is b-a-a-ck. If you were shut o♏ut of seating on Court 17 in her second-round loss, Bellis begins play in the U.S. Open junior girls event Monday against Mexico’s Renata Zarazua.
Bellis, who won the USTA nationals 18-and-under last month in﷽ Kalamazoo, Mich., is ranked second in the ITF junior 🍌rankings, but was a second-round knockout in the Wimbledon juniors.
Bellis, who became famous with her first-round Open victory over 12th seed Dominika Ciubulkova, is the favorite here, but hardly♔ an overwhelming one. Wimbledon j🗹unior champion, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko is in the draw and seeded second.
Also a contender is last year’s junior Open sensation, Tornado Black, wಞho is 16 and had her first-round mဣatch Sunday against Kimberly Birrell postponed. Black is the fourth seed.
In the Open boys junior tournament, Rockville Center’s Noah Rubin, the Wimbledon champ, is skipping it to start his freshma🐭n year at Wake Forest (delayed a week by his participation here in the main draw). But the American to watch is sixth seed Francis Tiafoe, who became the first American to win the Orange ꦏBowl last December, but who lost to Rubin in the Wimbledon semifinals. Tiafoe won his first-rounder Sunday over Korea’s Chan-yeong Ohm, 6-2, 6-3.
When the showers came Sunday at about 4:35 p.m., it marked the first rain delay of the Open. Since officially announcing, prior to last year’s Open, plans for a roof, it has been mostly dry in Flushing. Last year, there were ꧟only a couple of rain delays in wജhich play was suspended but no cancellations.
Serena and Venus Williams❀ took out Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-1, 6-0 in their 🌠second-round doubles match.
Looking for t🌱heir first doubles slam title of 2014, the Williams sister have won the 🐷past two Open doubles finals, and have made the finals each of the past three years.
David Ferrer was again unable to break through and win his elusive Grand Slam. Ferrer, the No. 4-seed, was ousted by No. 26 Gilles Simon, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, in an 11 a.m. match that jam-packed Louis Armstrong Stadium, causing the ✃wor🐟st lines of the tournament.
“Well, it was tough 🀅match today,” Ferrer said. “There was a lot of humidity, very sunny, and it was not easy for me. I was notꦛ good with my fitness.”
Americans Taylor Townsend a🅠nd Donald Young, who both already had been eliminated from 🍃their respective singles tournaments and who are longtime family friends, won their second-round mixed doubles match, upsetting the No. 2-ranked team of Andrea Hlavackova and Alexander Peya, 6-3, 6-3.