Bellis, 18, loses to Muguruza in late Dubai match

   In a match that began at about midnight (noon PST), second-seeded Garbine Muguruza beat 18-year-old wild card CiCi Bellis 6-3, 7-5 today in the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates.

   Muguruza, a 6-foot (1.82-meter) Spaniard, pounded six aces and won 64 percent of the points on her first serve (29 of 45). Bellis, a 5-foot-7 (1.68-meter) native of San Francisco who grew up in nearby Atherton, had no aces and took 49 percent of the points on her first delivery (26 of 53).

   It was the first meeting between the third-ranked Muguruza, who won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon last year, and the 41st-ranked Bellis, the youngest player in the top 50 by almost two years.

   Bellis will fall about seven spots in the rankings on Monday after reaching the Dubai quarterfinals last year. The tournament dropped from the Premier 5 level with a 64 draw to the Premier classification with a field of 32 this year.