La vita Bellis
Stanford tennis coach Lele Forood called CiCi Bellis to congratulate her on a stunning ride to the third round of the U.S. Open, where she faces No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber on Friday.
However, if the 17-year-old from Northern California pulls off another shocker Friday, Forood may never get a chance to coach her prized 2017-18 recruit.
“She’s No. 2 in the world obviously and an amazing player,” Bellis said. “It will be a lot of fun for me, but I’m more focused on me than her.”
Even if Bellis, who is playing in the second night match on Ashe Stadium, doesn’t oust Kerber, who has a chance to vault to No. 1 in the world, the teenager already is waffling on college. The high school senior, who takes online courses, was expected to sign a letter of intent with Stanford in November. But Bellis’ successes in the 2014 and 2016 Opens as an amateur has given her pause.
“Yeah, nothing’s set in stone,” Bellis told The Post on Thursday after a practice session as she waited on her rain-delayed women’s doubles match. “We’ll see how the rest of the year and tournament goes.”
The NCAA has stringent rules regarding pay for play. Last year, it started allowing players to earn up to $10,000 in prize money. In addition, the NCAA allows prize money to cover the U.S. Open’s travel expenses. So far, with her three qualifying-match victories, Bellis technically has earned $144,000. If she keeps it all, Stanford is history.
All she has decided on for sure is to get a better hotel room in Manhattan.
“I have already upgraded to a suite in my hotel. I had my dad do that for me,” she said, giggling. “I was excited about that. … Maybe it will be the presidential suite this time.”
For now, she seems delighted playing for the love of the sport and soaking in the Open’s energy.
“I love the whole atmosphere at this tournament, and hardcourts are my favorite surface,” Bellis said. “I just play well here. All the people who come out and watch me helps me a lot. If I didn’t have the support, I don’t know if I’d be doing as well as I am right now.’’
She even has her own teenage-groupie cheering section — a posse of about eight kids from Rhode Island who call themselves Team CiCi. They have followed her since last week’s qualifiers and have requested tickets from her via Instagram. Bellis got them into her player box for the second-round victory over Shelby Rogers and has invited them back for Friday against Kerber.
“They’re really nice, so I got them tickets,” Bellis said.
Bellis received enormous attention in 2014, when she won her first-round match over the 12thseeded Dominika Cibulkova at age 15 to become the youngest player to win a match here since 1996. She had a wild card into the main draw for winning the junior event, the National Hardcourts. Last August, however, she lost her final match of qualifiers and didn’t make the main draw. This Open, she went the qualifier rout again and advanced. Now she’s 5-0 the past 12 days and feels the qualifiers got her sharp for the main draw.
“I think I have earned my way in the tournament this time rather than last time I won the National Hardcourts, but it’s different,” Bellis said. “I think getting through qualifying means a lot more.
“It means so much more to me now. I got through two rounds. A couple years ago, I got through one, but getting through two, passing qualifying, was huge for me. It’s really, really big.”
She also could not say enough about enjoying Manhattan.
“I haven’t done much sightseeing yet because I don’t want to get too tired,” Bellis said. “After the tournament, I’ll have some fun. I love the whole atmosphere. I love clothes, I love shopping and this is the No. 1 shopping place in the world.’’