INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—NorCal or SoCal? It didn't matter what part of the Golden State you repped on Thursday. As Angeleno Ice Cube would say, It was a good day.
CiCi Bellis, born in San Francisco, and Taylor Fritz, born in San Diego County, both reached the second round of the BNP Paribas Open. Like their birthplaces, the ways in which they advanced were quite different. Fritz survived a match point against fellow American (by way of St. Joseph, Mich.) Reilly Opelka, while Bellis won the first six games of her lopsided opener with Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Both Californians showed off their combinations of craft and command that makes them potential U.S. threats as they mature. Each lacks a pure point-ender in the way that, say, Opelka unleashes 140-M.P.H. plus serves, but their court sense and coverage can diffuse even the most stubborn and powerful opponents.
Bellis, who will turn 19 in exactly one month, has steadily risen since stunning the tennis world by defeating Dominika Cibulkova at the US Open as a 15-year-old. The junior star's 2018 season includes a round-of-16 appearance in Sydney, where she won three matches to qualify, and a quarterfinal showing in Doha, where she qualified and upset Madison Keys and Karolina Pliskova. With her 6-0, 6-3 win over Tormo, she'll meet defending Indian Wells champion Elena Vesnina in a compelling second-rounder.
Ranked No. 45, Bellis has a long way to go before she joins compatriots like Keys, CoCo Vandeweghe and Sloane Stephens in the discussion of great young Americans. But what Bellis has already accomplished in the pros is worthy of praise, and her year will be as intriguing to follow as the seasons of the aforementioned 2017 US Open semifinalists.
