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ONE TO WATCH: Hailey Baptiste (Photo credit: United States Tennis Association YouTube)

HAILEY BAPTISTE will no doubt be winning over the media circus after the 17-year-old shocked fellow American Madison Keys at the Citi Open on Tuesday (Jul 30).

Baptiste, making her WTA Tour debut as a wildcard, eliminated the no.2 seed 7-6(4) 6-2 at the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center.

Competing in her hometown event in Washington D.C. was the rising star's chance to shine, and she reached the 2nd round of the traditional US Open warm-up tournament in style.

It was a cat-and-mouse opening set, with Keys surprisingly showing more nerves than her opponent on the hard court.

But the talented teenager sped away with the second set, winning five games on the bounce, to cause another upset at Washington's summer classic.

With all the furore surrounding 15-year-old Florida-based Cori 'Coco' Gauff, no one gave Baptiste much of a thought and certainly didn't give her a shot against the 2017 US Open runner-up.

But Baptiste, who claimed two ITF World Tour W25 titles this season to break into the world's top 300, loves hard courts and turned on the style with aplomb following a low quality opening set.

Last year she finished runner-up in the US Open Girls Singles at New York's Flushing Meadows so should not have been under-estimated by her former world no.7 opponent.

And with Gauff, who became the darling of Wimbledon for her remarkable run to the last 16 earlier this month, dismissed from the Citi Open by Kazakhstan’s Farina Diyas in straight sets, then eyes should be focused on newcomer Baptiste.

Only two out of six Americans survived the 1st round, fellow 17-year-old Caty McNally joining Baptiste with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Zhu Lin of China.

Now France's Kristina 'Kiki' Mladenovic stands between no.283 world-ranked Baptiste and a quarter-final berth.

Following Baptiste's incredible result then maybe fans and media alike will be scrambling to see if another star truly has exploded onto the tennis scene.

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