The City of Rock Hill, SC hosted the Rock Hill Rocks $25K USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in early October 2014 at the Rock Hill Tennis Center. The featured player at the tournament this year was CiCi Bellis. Bellis, the 15 year-old from the U.S., made headlines all over the world when she upset #12 Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of the US Open. She ended up winning the tournament when she defeated Lauren Embree, a former Florida Gator who was part of two University of Florida national championships, 6-4, 6-0. This is a great location for a challenger tournament and the tennis center personnel do a great job at hosting the event.
A great day for tennis on semi-final Saturday.
Bellis defeated Despina Papamichail of Greece 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the finals.
Papamichail played well in the second set, but in the end did not have enough to beat the US Open first round winner.
In the second match of the day, Lauren Embree played Nina Zander from Germany. Embree, hitting a backhand here, beat the four seed and the seven seed (Zander) on the way to the final.
Zander had a good tournament, but was no match for Embree, who won it in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.
In the doubles final on Sunday, the second seeded team of Cindy Burger and Sharon Fichman defeated the team of Janina Toljan and Despina Papamichail 4-6, 6-1 (10-6).
In the singles final, Embree was very consistent in the first set and forced Bellis into numerous long rallies.
Bellis hustled all over the court and wore Embree out. That was really the difference in the second set.
Overall, a nice win for the number one ranked junior in the world (18-and-under).
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