Bellis hits home court at Bank of West Tournament
It’s already been a whirlwind season for 18-year-old
CiCi Bellis is on familiar turf again, playing this week at the Bank of the West Classic just three miles from her hometown of Atherton. “Life is great,” she said. “Happy to be back here.”
Certainly life has changed for the 18-year-old tennis phenom, who spent most of the spring and early summer accumulating more than 32,000 frequentflyer miles while playing in such exotic locales as Morocco, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, not to mention Mexico, Spain, Italy, France and England.
“It’s a lot different, a lot more traveling,” Bellis said. “Places I would never go if I wasn’t playing tennis. But I’ve been having so much fun.”
Bellis, who opens play at here on Tuesday evening against Alize Cornet of France, says she still feels very much like a kid. She would be starting freshman classes at Stanford in barely a month had she not opted last fall to turn professional.
Life is coming at her fast right now. She makes daily phone calls home to hear familiar voices, but her career decision looks like a good one. She reached the third round at the French Open and played in the main draw at Wimbledon for the first time after the London tabloids published photos of her at the dressy WTA preWimbledon party.
At No. 43 in the latest WTA rankings, Bellis is the youngest player in the top 50.
“For sure exciting, but definitely not where I want to stay,” she said of her place in the rankings. “(I’m surprised) in a good way, but I think it’s possible to go even higher if I keep working hard.”
How high? Bellis answers carefully. “That’s a tough question,” she said, “but I think I can get pretty high.”
American tennis fans are rooting for someone to deliver an encore to the spectacular careers of the Williams sisters. Venus, 37, reached the finals at Wimbledon this summer, and Serena, 35, is taking time off to have a baby. But they can’t play forever, right?
“Maybe they can,” Bellis pondered.
Bellis isn’t the only relatively fresh face among Americans on the circuit — just the youngest. Madison Keys (22 years old), Coco Vandeweghe (25) and Lauren Davis (23) all have top35 rankings.
Bellis said the outside expectations don’t weigh on her.
“No pressure at all,” she said. “It just gives me more motivation to represent my country in that way.”
Among her biggest fans is tennis icon Chris Evert, who works with Bellis as part of a US Tennis Association mentoring program. The two talk on the phone about twice a week, said Bellis, who gets technical input and advice on strategy along with tips on subjects including dealing with the media from the winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles.
“I’ve been so impressed by her maturity and self-reliance and just the hunger she has to learn,” Evert told the New York Times. “Her eyes are wide open to any information that you can give her.
“Bottom line is no drama. Some of these other girls, when they are practicing, it’s yelling and up and down and emotions and body language, and with her, it’s steadfast.”
Evert predicted Bellis will be a top-20 player by year’s end.
“She’s definitely got a lot of confidence in me,” said Bellis, who knows all about Evert’s achievements through her mother, Lori, and by watching old video. “She’s amazing. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that one day.”
Bellis believes her strengths are her movement on the court, an aggressive forehand and her mindset. She is working to improve her serve and stamina and knows with time she will become physically stronger.
Her progress this season is obvious. She ended last season ranked No. 90 in the world, an improvement from 248 in 2015.
At a grass-court event at Mallorca, Spain, she upset Carla Suarez Navarro, who was ranked No. 6 in the world at one point in 2016. She lost in straights sets to former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki at Dubai early this season, then extended her to three sets at the French Open.
For now, there is the prospect of playing well again in front of family and friends at Stanford, a year after reaching the quarterfinals as an amateur.
“It would mean everything to me,” she said.