Sports
Bellamy's Comeback Wins Fuel SoCal Victory
The Palisadian wins eight matches at the Intersectional Team Tennis Championships.
Robbie Bellamy has pulled off some monster comebacks in his tennis career, but the escape acts he performed earlier this week at the United States Tennis Association's Intersectional Team Championships take the cake.
The 16-year-old Palisadian won all eight of his matches for Southern California, including a come-from-behind singles win in Thursday's finals that propelled his team to victory over Southern at Pierremont Oaks Tennis Club in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Bellamy looked all but finished in his match against Georgia's Zachary Kennedy, serving at 0-4, 15-40 in the third and final set. However, he managed to hold his serve, then reeled off five straight games to steal the match and put SoCal on the verge of victory.
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Teammate Jana McCord from San Diego sealed the deal with her 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 win over Mia King of North Carolina that clinched first-place in the five-day, 16-team competition.
Traling 4-1 in the third set, Bellamy changed tactics, stepping up his aggression and attacking his opponents' second serve.
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"At that point, I started controlling the court a little more," Bellamy told the Shreveport Times after the match. "Dictating the action. Trying to get to the net whenever I could. I slowly chipped away, which is all I could do. I knew I could do it. I just had to remind myself."
In the semifinals the day before, Bellamy and his partner Gregory Garcia of Poway staged an even more astonishing comeback. Having already lost the first set 6-1, the SoCal duo trailed the second set 1-5 and faced three match points before roaring back to take the last two sets, 7-6, 6-3.
Bellamy had precious little time to relish his latest victory, however. The next morning he was on a plane to Boca Raton, Florida, for the Clay Court National Championships, which begin Sunday.
Robbie wasn't the only one in the family making headlines this week. Back in California, younger brothers Roscoe and Lucas were netting some huge wins of their own at the Sacramento Junior Nationals.
Top-seeded Roscoe captured the 12s singles championship, winning all five of his matches without dropping a set. He defeated unseeded Daly Meinert of Fresno, 6-4, 6-2, in the championship match.
Roscoe then partnered with Lucas to win the 12s doubles crown. The Bellamys were seeded No. 4 out of 32 teams and upset top-seeded Austen Huang of Elk Grove and Keenan Mayo of Roseville, 8-6, in the finals.
