A Few Sandwich Related Thoughts on CiCi Bellis

by Deghasio

I’ve gotten thousands* of e-mails over the past few days asking me to compare US Open phenom CiCi Bellis to a sandwich. My automatic reaction to Bellis was to dislike her because I hate happiness. Bellis’ first tennis memory is watching Maria Sharapova, who made her grand slam debut in 2003. My first tennis memory is watching Andre Agassi, who made his grand slam debut in 1986. Related story: I hate teenagers.

* All e-mail statistics approximate.

Bellis’ win over Dominika Cibulkova was really impressive—Cibulkova is a really good player who, it seems hard to believe, was neck-in-neck with Li Na in the first set of a grand slam final just 7 months ago. Despite my natural pessimism, it’s hard to call this a fluke—Bellis played a three-setter in her next-round loss to Zarina Diyas, and she has a number of U-18 wins under her belt already, including the USTA national championships, Les Petits As, and a runner-up in the French Open doubles. Bellis’ results show that she clearly has the talent to be a professional.

Despite these good results, it’s impossible to accurately predict Bellis’ career. Bellis has already drawn comparisons to the likes of Seles and Nadal as teenagers, but tennis is littered with prodigies who never became the champions they were supposed to become. Bellis is the youngest player since Kournikova to win a US Open Match, and Kournikova eventually was relegated to becoming a singles journeyman / doubles specialist / model. Fellow young prodigies like Nicole Vaidisova, Kathy Rinaldi, and 9-year-old magazine cover star Richard Gasquet all had big ambitions as teenagers before settling as week-to-week players. Donald Young was one of the most hyped young players in American before generating headlines with phrases like "Historic Losing Streak."

After careful consideration, I think Bellis is not a sandwich at all, but rather raw ingredients. (CORRECTION: Investigative journalism has revealed that Bellis is actually a human being.) Bellis’ best comp is a can of tuna. I doubt Bellis will end up like Young for a number of reasons, chief among them that the men’s tour was historically strong when Young turned pro, whereas Bellis is playing during a turbulent time when anyone going on two-week-long hot streak can make a run at a grand slam. The worst-case scenario for her career is what I’m calling the Tuna Sandwich Tier, home to the likes of Gasquet, Vaidisova, and Rinaldi—the professionals who win a title or two a year and make a deep run in a few grand slams. With a little luck and hard work, she could end up with a couple grand slams, become a perennial top-ten player, and most prestigiously, retire as a member of the Tuna Melt tier, AKA the Lleyton Hewitt Club. And who knows, maybe Bellis will join the delicious Pan Bagnat tier and fulfill the comparisons to Nadal. First she has to graduate high school.