US teen Bellis stuns Cibulkova at US Open

American teen CiCi Bellis became the youngest player to win a US Open match since 1996 – almost three years before she was born – when she stunned Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova.

The 15-year-old Bellis rallied from down a break in the third set for a 6-1 4-6 6-4 first-round victory Tuesday over the 12th-seeded Cibulkova.

With an overflow crowd at a cozy side court roaring, she broke Cibulkova’s serve to clinch the match.

“I never thought I’d come out like this,” the world No.1208 said in an on-court interview.

Anna Kournikova was also 15 when she won at the US Open in 1996.

Bellis’ title at the USTA Girls’ 18s National Championship earned her a wild card into her first tour-level main draw.

The Californian was the youngest champion of that event since Lindsay Davenport also won it at 15 in 1991.

When Tuesday’s match was over, Bellis ran across the court to hug members of her cheering section. She’s the youngest American to win at the US Open since a 15-year-old Mary Joe Fernandez in 1986.

Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova fared far better than the last time she came to New York after winning at the All England Club.

In 2011, she lost in the first round; on Tuesday, she beat Kristina Mladenovic 6-1 6-0.

The player Kvitova defeated in the Wimbledon final, Eugenie Bouchard, was back to her winning ways in her return to the Grand Slam stage.

The seventh-seeded Bouchard routed Olga Govortsova 6-2 6-1.

Ana Ivanovic was feeling good about her game coming into the US Open, and it showed Tuesday. The eighth-seeded Serb beat American Alison Riske 6-3 6-0. Ivanovic has won 48 matches this year, more than anyone else on tour.

The 2008 French Open champion has struggled to get back to that level but finally seems to be inching closer. She returned to the top 10 this month for the first time in more than five years.

Svetlana Kuznetsova lost her first-round US Open match for the first time since 2005, the year she was the tournament’s defending champion.

Kuznetsova, seeded 20th, was beaten 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7-3) by 82nd-ranked Marina Erakovic of New Zealand.

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