Teenagers Cici Bellis, ranked at 1,208, and Borna Coric, the men’s No. 204, made stunning Grand Slam debuts on Tuesday, rocking the sleepy US Open out of its early slumbers.
Bellis, just 15, caused the biggest upset when she knocked out Australian Open runner-up, Dominika Cibulkova, the 12th seed, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to become the youngest player to win a match at the US Open since Anna Kournikova, who was 59 days younger when she reached the fourth round, in 1996.
Playing just her 13th pro-level match, the American teenager won a wildcard into the US Open by winning the US under-18 championships.
The home-schooled teenager from the wine-growing Napa Valley in northern California was making her WTA Tour debut and before Tuesday had never met a player ranked inside the top 100.
Coric, 17, who was the junior champion in 2013 and came through qualifying this year, celebrated his first Grand Slam match 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.
The upset put Coric into a second-round clash with history-making Victor Estrella Burgos, the Dominican Republic's first Grand Slam participant who is making his US Open debut at 34.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Coric, who arrived in New York with the goal of making it into the main draw.
“I said to myself, ‘If I achieve that, that’s going to be perfect’.”
Meanwhile, the second-seeded Roger Federer, looking to extend his record men’s haul of slam titles to 18, posted a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4) demolition of Australian Marinko Matosevic as the 33-year-old’s boyhood idol Michael Jordan of basketball fame looked on.
“He was just my hero of all sports,” said Federer, who has collaborated with Jordan on a sneakers design.10th seed Kei Nishikori of Japan, 13th-seeded American John Isner and 25th seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia were among first-round winners.
Nishikori shrugged off a recent toe injury to dismiss American wild card Wayne Odesnik, while Isner ousted compatriot Marcos Giron and Karlovic eliminated Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.
Although five of eight US men in action were eliminated, Sam Querrey gave local fans something to celebrate with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina.
India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi crashed out of the US Open after going down fighting in the men’s doubles first round contest.
The 13th seeded pair, lost 7-6(10), 4-6, 7-6(5) to the unseeded Italian pair of Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi in a contest that lasted for more than two-and-a-half hours.
Serena Williams advanced with a 6-3, 6-1 win over unseeded fellow American Taylor Townsend as she followed Federer onto the Arthur Ashe Stadium court to cap the second day of the championships.
Should she go on to win the tournament, the two-times defending champion would join Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in fourth place on the all-time list of women’s Grand Slam singles champions with 18 titles apiece. Other leading contenders were keen to display their skills on a sunny day in Flushing Meadows.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and runner-up Eugenie Bouchard launched their campaigns with a bang, blasting by their respective first-round opponents with a minimum of fuss. They were joined in the second round by eighth-seeded former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, 11th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, 16th seed Victoria Azarenka and 2011 champion Sam Stosur, but the biggest jolt of energy was supplied by Bellis. Third-seeded Kvitova of the Czech Republic crushed Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-1, 6-0, while Bouchard was nearly as efficient in dismissing Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-2, 6-1 in the afternoon sunshine.
“I'm very happy. First round is always nerves,” said the hard-hitting Kvitova. “It was the same today. When I wake up, I start to feel nervous. I was just glad how I played today.” Another seeded woman shown the exit was former French Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova (20th) of Russia, who lost to 82nd-ranked Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 3-6, 6-2 7-6(3).
