CiCi Bellis

CiCi Bellis

Bellis at the 2016 US Open
Full name	Catherine Cartan Bellis
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Atherton, California
Born	(1999-04-08) April 8, 1999 San Francisco, United States
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Turned pro	September 13, 2016[1]
Prize money	$354,922
Singles
Career record	75–35
Career titles	1 WTA 125K, 6 ITF
Highest ranking	75 (November 28, 2016)
Current ranking	75 (November 28, 2016)
Grand Slam Singles results
French Open	Q1 (2015)
US Open	3R (2016)
Doubles
Career record	17–15
Career titles	2 ITF
Highest ranking	243 (September 12, 2016)
Current ranking	249 (November 28, 2016)
Last updated on: November 28, 2016.

Catherine Cartan "CiCi" Bellis (born April 8, 1999) is an American tennis player.

Bellis has won one singles title on the WTA tour and six singles and two doubles titles on the ITF tour in her career. On November 28, 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 75. On September 12, 2016, she peaked at world number 243 in the doubles rankings.

Bellis was ranked the number one junior tennis player in the world in September 2014,^[2] and was declared 2014 ITF Junior World Champion.

Junior career

Bellis in 2013

In August 2014, Bellis won the USTA Girls 18's National Championship, defeating Tornado Alicia Black in the final in straight sets. With this victory, she became the youngest winner of the event (at 15 years, 4 months) since Lindsay Davenport in 1991, and also earned a wild card into the main draw of the 2014 US Open.^[3][4]

Bellis's ITF junior season was highlighted by winning the Grade A Trofeo Bonfiglio and the Grade B1 Easter Bowl tournaments, victories that helped propel her to the number one ranking in the girls' juniors. She finished the year ranked No. 1 to become the 2014 ITF Junior World Champion.

Professional career

Early years

In the first round of the 2014 US Open, Bellis upset number 13 seed Dominika Cibulková, the runner-up at the Australian Open earlier in the year, to become the youngest player to win a match at the US Open since Anna Kournikova won at age 15 in 1996.^[5] She was the youngest American to win a match at the US Open since Mary Joe Fernández in 1986, the youngest woman in the main draw of a Grand Slam since Alizé Cornet at the 2005 French Open, and the youngest in the main draw of the US Open since 2004.^[3] Bellis was unable to win her next match, losing in three sets to 20 year old Zarina Diyas in round two.^[6]

In 2015, Bellis received a wildcard into the main draw of the WTA Premier Mandatory tournament in Miami. She beat Indy De Vroome in the first round before avenging her US Open loss against Diyas in the second round. In the third round, she lost to eventual champion Serena Williams.

2016: Top 100, First WTA title

In the summer of 2016, Bellis received a wild card into the 2016 Bank of the West Classic Premier tournament, where she defeated Jeļena Ostapenko and Sachia Vickery en route to reaching her first WTA singles quarterfinal, before losing to top seed Venus Williams. The following month, she returned to the main draw of the US Open, this time as a qualifier. She beat Viktorija Golubic and Shelby Rogers to reach the third round for the first time in her career, where she lost to world number 2 Angelique Kerber in straight sets.

After her performance at the US Open, Bellis turned professional. In her first tournament as a pro, Bellis entered the Coupe Banque Nationale and reached her second career WTA quarterfinal after wins over Amandine Hesse and Danielle Lao. She was eventually defeated by compatriot Julia Boserup.

Towards the end of the season, Bellis caught fire and won her final three tournaments of the year. This included two ITF 50K events at Saguenay over Bianca Andreescu and at Toronto against Jesika Malečková. With these victories, she moved into the Top 100 for the first time. Bellis then proceeded to extend her match win streak to 15 by winning her first WTA event at the Hawaii Tennis Open in Honolulu. She capped off the tournament with a huge win in the final over world number 23 Zhang Shuai. Bellis finished the year ranked No. 75 and the only player under 18 in the Top 100.

WTA finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	November 27, 2016	Hawaii Tennis Open, Honolulu, United States	Hard	Zhang Shuai	6–4, 6–2

ITF finals (8–1)

Singles (6–1)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	October 6, 2014	Rock Hill, United States	Hard	Lauren Embree	6–4, 6–0
Winner	2.	October 13, 2014	Florence, United States	Hard	Ysaline Bonaventure	6–2, 6–1
Winner	3.	February 23, 2015	Rancho Santa Fe, United States	Hard	Maria Sanchez	6–2, 6–0
Runner-up	1.	February 15, 2016	Surprise, United States	Hard	Jamie Loeb	6–3, 1–6, 3–6
Winner	4.	June 13, 2016	Sumter, United States	Hard	Valeria Solovyeva	6–1, 6–3
Winner	5.	October 17, 2016	Saguenay, Canada	Hard (i)	Bianca Andreescu	6–4, 6–2
Winner	6.	November 6, 2016	Toronto, Canada	Hard (i)	Jesika Malečková	6–2, 1–6, 6–3

Doubles (2–0)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	March 10, 2014	Orlando, United States	Clay	Alexis Nelson	Sally Peers Natalie Pluskota	6–2, 0–6, [11–9]
Winner	2.	February 1, 2016	Midland, United States	Hard (i)	Ingrid Neel	Naomi Broady Shelby Rogers	6–2, 6–4

Grand Slam performance timeline

Junior Grand Slam finals

Girls' Doubles

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	2014	French Open	Clay	Markéta Vondroušová	Ioana Ducu Ioana Loredana Roșca	1–6, 7–5, [9–11]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to CiCi Bellis.

• CiCi Bellis at the Women's Tennis Association
• CiCi Bellis at the International Tennis Federation

Awards
Preceded by Belinda Bencic	ITF Junior World Champion 2014	Succeeded by Dalma Gálfi