Despite loss, teenager Bellis nears top 50 in world

CiCi Bellis (above in 2016) and Sorana Cirstea (below
in 2013) meet the press during the Bank of the West
Classic at Stanford. Photos by Paul Bauman

   Despite losing today in the second round of the Madrid Open, CiCi Bellis is closing in on a top-50 world ranking.
   For the second consecutive week, the 18-year-old San Francisco Bay Area product lost 6-3, 6-2 after beating a top-30 player on clay.
   Bellis fell to resurgent Sorana Cirstea, a 27-year-old Romanian, in Madrid after  upsetting No. 26 Daria Gavrilova, a Moscow-born Australian, 7-5, 5-7, 6-2.
   Last week, Bellis lost to Varvara Lepchenko, a 30-year-old American from Uzbekistan, in the quarterfinals in Rabat, Morocco, after surprising No. 2 seed and defending champion Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-7 (3), 7-5, 7-5 in 3 hours, 8 minutes.
   Unlike last week, Bellis had a day to rest before her loss. She was trying to beat a Grand Slam quarterfinalist or better for the sixth time. Cirstea reached the French Open quarters in 2009.
   Bellis, now based in Orlando, Fla., will rise about three spots to No. 52 on Monday. Three teenagers, all 19, are ranked in the top 50: No. 29 Ana Konjuh of Croatia, No. 46 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and No. 49 Naomi Osaka Of Japan.
   Bellis defeated Ostapenko in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford last July en route to the quarterfinals. Bellis grew up in neighboring  Atherton.
   Bellis, who turned pro last September after reaching the third round of the U.S. Open as a qualifier, is by far the youngest woman in the top 100. Next is Konjuh, who's 15 months older than Bellis.
   Cirstea, ranked No. 83, will play No. 53 Misaki Doi of Japan for a berth in the Madrid quarterfinals. Doi, a 5-foot-3 (1.59-meter) left-hander, routed qualifier Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-1, 6-2 after ousting No. 9 seed Madison Keys in the first round.
   Keys, a 22-year-old American right-hander with a two-handed backhand, underwent arthroscopic surgery on her left wrist last November.
   Doi held a match point against Angelique Kerber in the first round of last year's Australian Open. Kerber went on to win the first of her two Grand Slam singles titles.
   Cirstea advanced to the Bank of the West semifinals in 2012 and climbed to a career-high No. 21 in 2013. However, she dropped out of the top 200 in 2015 because of shoulder problems.

Teen Bellis beats another top-30 player

CiCi Bellis, playing in the U.S. Open last August, defeated
26th-ranked Daria Gavrilova on Sunday in the first round
of the Madrid Open on clay. Photo by Paul Bauman

   CiCi Bellis was back to her energetic self on Sunday.
   The 18-year-old product of Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area beat 26th-ranked Daria Gavrilova of Australia 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 on clay in the first round of the Madrid Open.
   It was Bellis' sixth victory over a top-30 player and fourth this year, even though she missed the first six weeks of 2017 with a hamstring injury.
   On Thursday, a physically drained Bellis lost to American Varvara Lepchenko 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals on clay in Rabat, Morocco. Bellis was playing for the third consecutive day after winning two matches 7-5 in the third set. On Wednesday, she survived one match point and outlasted No. 2 seed and defending champion Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-7 (3), 7-5, 7-5 in 3 hours, 8 minutes.
    Bellis, by far the youngest player in the top 100 at No. 59, will play Sorana Cirstea, a 27-year-old wild card from Romania, for the first time in Madrid on Tuesday. Cirstea, ranked No. 83, upset 13th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the Rabat champion, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5).
   Cirstea reached the French Open quarterfinals in 2009 and the Toronto final in 2013. In the latter tournament, she beat Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova and Li Na before losing to Serena Williams. That catapulted Cirstea to a career-high No. 21.
   However, Cirstea dropped out of the top 200 in 2015 because of shoulder injuries.

Serena, Vandeweghe to meet in all-American final

Top seed and defending champion Serena Williams needed only one hour
to beat ninth-seeded Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Bank
of the West Classic at Stanford. Photo by Paul Bauman

   STANFORD -- The woes of American professional tennis have been well-documented over the past decade.
   The United States hasn't had a Grand Slam men's singles champions since Andy Roddick in the 2003 U.S. Open, and Serena Williams is the only U.S. woman in the top 25.
   Perhaps the most shocking statistic of all, however, surfaced -- so to speak -- on Saturday at the Bank of the West Classic.
   Sunday's 1 p.m. final between Williams, the top seed and defending champion, and lucky loser CoCo Vandeweghe will be the first between two American women on U.S. soil since Lindsay Davenport routed Williams 6-1, 6-3 eight years ago in Los Angeles.
   "It's cool," the fourth-ranked Williams said of the all-American final after dismissing ninth-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-1, 6-2 in one hour Saturday night. "Everyone is always asking about American players. CoCo took her second chance to the ultimate degree. I'm glad she's American. If she wins tomorrow, I'll be happy for her."

 CoCo Vandeweghe used her powerful serve to become
the first lucky loser in seven years to reach a WTA final.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   The 6-foot-1 Vandeweghe earlier used her powerful serve and groundstrokes to become the first lucky loser in seven years to reach a WTA final. She blasted 12 aces, including a 120-mph rocket to lead all players in the tournament, in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over fifth-seeded Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.
   That put Vandeweghe, a 20-year-old resident of Rancho Santa Fe in the San Diego area, in her first career WTA final.
   "My whole dream when I started playing tennis was to be No. 1 in the world," Vandeweghe said. "Playing in WTA finals and winning titles is progress toward that goal."
   The only previous meeting between Williams and Vandeweghe came in World TeamTennis, which uses an abbreviated scoring format. Williams won by one point, 5-4 (5-4 tiebreaker), last summer. 
   Vandeweghe lost to Thailand's Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, the 2009 Wimbledon girls singles champion, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the final round of qualifying for the Bank of the West Classic but advanced to the main draw when Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia withdrew with an unspecified injury.
    The last lucky loser to reach a WTA final was Hungary's Melinda Czink, who fell to Ana Ivanovic in the 2005 Canberra title match.
   Vandeweghe beat Czink in the first round at Stanford, fourth seed and former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the second round, and Urszula Radwanska in the quarterfinals. Radwanska is the younger sister of recent Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska.
   Vandeweghe comes from a renowned athletic family. Her uncle Kiki averaged 19.7 points during his 13-year NBA career (1980-93). Her grandfather Ernie played for the New York Knicks in the 1950s, and her mother, Tauna, represented the United States at the Olympics in swimming in 1976 and volleyball in 1984.
   Tauna is attending the Bank of the West Classic. After Saturday's match, CoCo jumped in her mother's arms and gave her a big hug.
   CoCo played volleyball and basketball as a child and didn't take up tennis until the preposterously late age -- for a future pro -- of 11. At 16, she turned pro and won the U.S. Open girls singles title.
   Vandeweghe played for the Sacramento Capitals of WTT the following year and will return to the team in eight days after competing for the Boston Lobsters the past two seasons.   
   Playing near home in Carlsbad two years ago, Vandeweghe knocked off Vera Zvonareva en route to the quarterfinals. Zvonareva had reached the Wimbledon final one month earlier, losing to Williams.
   Vandeweghe, ranked No. 120 entering the Bank of the West Classic, will crack the top 75 Monday to surpass her career high of No. 89 in April last year.
   Wickmayer, 6 feet, reached the U.S. Open semifinals three years ago at 19 but has been plagued by back problems. She won long three-setters in the first two rounds of the Bank of the West Classic, then upset second-seeded Marion Bartoli of France in the quarterfinals. Bartoli won the Bank of the West in 2009 and reached the final in 2008 and last year.
   Wickmayer and Vandeweghe traded darts from the baseline in their two-hour, 11-minute battle. Vandeweghe broke Wickmayer's serve for 3-1 and 6-2 in the third set while holding her own throughout the set. Both times Wickmayer was broken, she followed an unforced error with a double fault on the last two points.
   Vandeweghe saved four break points at 3-1 in the final set and six of seven overall. She converted only 46 percent of her first serves, a figure that must improve against Williams, but won 86 percent of her first-serve points.
   "She served well," Wickmayer said. "It was tough to get any chances on her serve. It made my serve more difficult. I knew I couldn't lose my own serve. Every break point was like match point."
   The night match featured Serena vs. Sorana. Williams, who reputedly has the best serve in women's tennis history, put in only 38 percent of her first deliveries.
   "That's outrageous, to be honest," she said. "(Cirstea) didn't serve very well, either."
   Cirstea had a first-serve percentage of just 36 and double-faulted eight times. She also committed a whopping 32 unforced errors to 10 winners.
   Vandeweghe hardly can do worse Sunday, but at least an American will win.
   See below for Saturday's full results and Sunday's schedule.
   WTT in Irvine -- Sam Querrey, a top-20 player before undergoing elbow surgery in June 2011, joined the Capitals one match early. But it wasn't enough as Davenport and the Orange County Breakers defeated Sacramento 23-20 in overtime to end the Capitals' three-match winning streak.
   Querrey, replacing Ryan Sweeting, won 5-3 in men's singles and lost 5-4 in men's doubles with Mark Knowles. Sweeting played only one of his scheduled three matches for Sacramento (3-2) after suffering back spasms in the season opener.
   Querrey is scheduled to play the next five matches for the Capitals and 33rd-ranked Kevin Anderson the last four of the regular season. Querrey is 6-foot-6 and Anderson 6-8.
   Davenport, a former Capital who reached No. 1 in the world in singles and doubles, won 5-3 in women's doubles with Anna-Lena Groenefeld and 5-2 in mixed doubles with Travis Parrott for Orange County (2-2). Davenport, a 36-year-old mother of three, did not play singles.
   See below for Saturday's full results.

BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC

At Stanford

Singles semifinals

   CoCo Vandeweghe, Rancho Santa Fe, def. Yanina Wickmayer (5), Belgium, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
   Serena Williams (1), Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., def. Sorana Cirstea (9), Romania, 6-1, 6-2.

Doubles semifinals

   Jarmila Gajdosova, Australia, and Vania King (1), Boynton Beach, Fla., def. Yung-Jan Chan and Hao-Ching Chan (4), Taiwan, 6-3, 6-3.
   Marina Erakovic, New Zealand, and Heather Watson, Great Britain, def. Natalie Grandin, South Africa, and Vladimira Uhlirova (3), Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 10-7.

Sunday's order of play

(Starting at 1 p.m.)

   CoCo Vandeweghe, Rancho Santa Fe, vs. Serena Williams (1), Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

   Jarmila Gajdosova, Australia, and Vania King (1), Boynton Beach, Fla., vs. Marina Erakovic, New Zealand, and Heather Watson, Great Britain. 

WORLD TEAMTENNIS

Orange County 23, Capitals 20 (OT)

In Irvine, Calif.

   Men's doubles -- John-Patrick Smith-Travis Parrott (Breakers) def. Sam Querrey-Mark Knowles (Capitals) 5-4.
   Women's doubles -- Lindsay Davenport-Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Breakers) def. Asia Muhammad-Yasmin Schnack (Capitals) 5-3.
   Men's singles -- Sam Querrey (Capitals) def. John-Patrick Smith (Breakers) 5-3.
   Mixed doubles -- Travis Parrott-Lindsay Davenport (Breakers) def. Mark Knowles-Yasmin Schnack (Capitals) 5-2.
   Women's singles -- Asia Muhammad (Capitals) def. Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Breakers) 5-4.
   Overtime -- Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Breakers) tied Asia Muhammad (Capitals) 1-1.

SUNDAY'S TV SCHEDULE

(All times PDT)

   Newport (men), final, Tennis Channel, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (live); Stanford (women), final,  ESPN2, 1-3 p.m. (live); Stuttgart (men), final, Tennis Channel, 1-3 pm. (delay); Bastad (men), final, Tennis Channel, 3-5 p.m. (delay); Umag (men), final, Tennis Channel, 5-7 p.m. (delay); Palermo (women), final, Tennis Channel, 7-9 p.m. (delay).

CALENDAR

   Sunday -- WTA, Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, singles final at 1 p.m., doubles final to follow. www.bankofthewestclassic.com.
   Monday -- World TeamTennis, Sacramento Capitals (with Sam Querrey) vs. New York, Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   Wednesday -- Capitals at Washington, 4:10 p.m.
   Thursday -- Capitals at Springfield, 5:05 p.m.
   Friday -- Capitals at Kansas City, 5:35 p.m.
   July 22 -- Springfield at Capitals (with Querrey, CoCo Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   July 24 -- Orange County (with Lindsay Davenport) at Capitals (with Kevin Anderson, Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   July 25 -- Capitals (with Vandeweghe) at Orange County, 7 p.m.
   July 27 -- Philadelphia (with Mark Philippoussis) at Capitals (with Anderson, Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   July 28 -- Boston at Capitals (with Anderson, Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   July 28-Aug. 5 -- OLYMPIC TENNIS TOURNAMENT, Wimbledon, www.london2012.com.

Serena advances, but No. 2 and 3 seeds fall

   Serena Williams' toughest foe this week might be jet lag.
   Williams still hasn't adjusted to California time after flying from London on Monday, but it hasn't hurt her on the court at Stanford.
   The top seed and defending champion dismissed sixth-seeded Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-4, 6-0 Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Bank of the West Classic. Williams has lost only seven total games in two matches after receiving a first-round bye.
   Williams woke up at Friday at 1 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. So she watched several episodes of  "Desperate Housewives."
   "I was wide-awake,” Williams told reporters. “It was like I was still in Europe. So I finished 'Desperate Housewives,' which was amazing. It’s my favorite show ever. I finally got back to sleep around 6. What stinks is I have to go back very soon (for the Olympics), and I’ll have to readjust again. But it’s OK.”

   Meanwhile, the second and third seeds lost at Stanford. No. 2 Marion Bartoli of France fell to No. 5 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-3, 6-2, and No. 3 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia wilted against No. 9 Sorana Cirstea 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0. 

   Bartoli, who had never lost a set in three matches against Wickmayer, double-faulted nine times. She won the 2009 Bank of the West Classic, beating Venus Williams in three sets, and lost in the 2008 and 2011 finals.     

   Cibulkova reached the Bank of the West semifinals last year and the quarterfinals in 2008.
   The 6-foot Wickmayer, a U.S. Open semifinalist in 2009 and Bank of the West quarterfinalist in 2010, will face 6-foot-1 CoCo Vandeweghe in today's semis at 1 p.m. Williams and Cirstea will square off at 7 p.m. Both matches will be first-time meetings.
   Vandeweghe, a part-time Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis from the San Diego area, beat Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-4 to reach her first WTA semifinal. Vandeweghe also become the first lucky loser in a Premier semifinal since Samantha Stosur in 2006 at New Haven.  
   "I was pretty mad about losing in the last round in qualifying," said Vandeweghe, who avenged a loss to Radwanska one month ago in the final of a minor-league tournament on grass at Nottingham. "I had the match on my racquet and didn't play well on that day -- of course you can't play well every day. But I seem to be doing a pretty good job of picking myself back up and putting a lot of good matches together these days.
   "I've been putting a lot of hard work in, on and off the court, and I knew it would translate into my matches sometime. And I'm glad it's here in Stanford."
   World TeamTennis in Citrus Heights, Calif. -- The good news for the Capitals is that they won their third straight match Friday night. The bad news is that marquee player Mardy Fish completed his two-match stint with the team.
   Fish, ranked 13th in the world in singles after reaching a career-high No. 7 last August, won both of his sets for the second night in a row as Sacramento routed the Orange County Breakers 24-14 at Sunrise Mall. 
   Ryan Sweeting, ranked No. 116, is scheduled to take over tonight at Orange County (1-2) in his last match of the season for the Capitals (3-1). Sweeting, a 25-year-old American, suffered back spasms in Sacramento's season-opening loss at Boston and missed the Capitals' victory at Philadelphia the following night.
   Sacramento won four of the five sets against Orange County, which received a 5-4 victory in women's doubles from Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Jana Juricova.
   Mark Knowles, 40, and Sacramento-area resident Yasmin Schnack got the Capitals off to a fast start with a 5-0 victory over Travis Parrott and Jana Juricova in mixed doubles. 

   In 2009, Knowles and Groenefeld won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title, and Parrott took the U.S. Open mixed crown with Carly Gullickson. Juricova, a former NCAA singles and doubles champion from Slovakia, completed her eligibility at Cal in May. 

BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC

At Stanford

Singles quarterfinals

   Serena Williams (1), Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., def. Chanelle Scheepers (6), South Africa, 6-4, 6-0.
   Yanina Wickmayer (5), Belgium, def. Marion Bartoli (2), France, 6-3, 6-2.
   Sorana Cirstea (9), Romania, def. Dominika Cibulkova (3), Slovakia, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0.   CoCo Vandeweghe (USA) d. Urszula Radwanska, Poland, 6-4, 6-4.

Today's schedule 

Stadium (starting at 1 p.m.)

   CoCo Vandeweghe, Rancho Santa Fe, vs. Yanina Wickmayer (5), Belgium.
   Jarmila Gajdosova, Australia, and Vania King (1), Boynton Beach, Fla., vs. Yung-Jan Chan and Hao-Ching Chan (4), Taiwan.
   Serena Williams (1), Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., vs. Sorana Cirstea (9), Romania (not before 7 p.m.).
   Natalie Grandin, South Africa, and Vladimira Uhlirova (3), Czech Republic, vs. Marina Erakovic, New Zealand, and Heather Watson, Great Britain.

WORLD TEAMTENNIS

Capitals 24, Orange County 14

In Citrus Heights, Calif.

   Mixed doubles -- Mark Knowles-Yasmin Schnack (Capitals) def. Travis Parrott-Jana Juricova (Breakers) 5-0.
   Women's doubles -- Anna-Lena Groenefeld-Jana Juricova (Breakers) def. Asia Muhammad-Yasmin Schnack (Capitals) 5-4.
   Men's doubles -- Mardy Fish-Mark Knowles (Capitals) def. Travis Parrott-John-Patrick Smith (Breakers) 5-3.
   Women's singles -- Asia Muhammad (Capitals) def. Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Breakers) 5-4.
   Men's singles -- Mardy Fish (Capitals) def. John-Patrick Smith (Breakers) 5-2.

WEEKEND TV SCHEDULE

(All times PDT)

   Today -- Newport, Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (Jennifer Capriati, Gustavo Kuerten, Manuel Orantes, Randy Snow and Mike Davies), Tennis Channel, 9:30-10:30 a.m. (live); Newport (men), semifinals, Tennis Channel, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (live); Stanford (women), semifinals, ESPN2, 1-3 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. (live); Stuttgart (men), semifinals, Tennis Channel, 3-7 p.m. (delay); Bastad (men), semifinals, Tennis Channel, 7-11 p.m. (delay).

   Sunday -- Newport (men), final, Tennis Channel, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (live); Stanford (women), final,  ESPN2, 1-3 p.m. (live); Stuttgart (men), final, Tennis Channel, 1-3 pm. (delay); Bastad (men), final, Tennis Channel, 3-5 p.m. (delay); Umag (men), final, Tennis Channel, 5-7 p.m. (delay); Palermo (women), final, Tennis Channel, 7-9 p.m. (delay).

CALENDAR

   Today -- WTA, Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, semifinals, 1 and 7 p.m. www.bankofthewestclassic.com.
   World TeamTennis, Sacramento Capitals at Orange County, 7 p.m.
   Sunday -- WTA, Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, singles final at 1 p.m., doubles final to follow. www.bankofthewestclassic.com.
   Monday -- Capitals (with Sam Querrey) vs. New York, Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   Wednesday -- Capitals at Washington, 4:10 p.m.
   Thursday -- Capitals at Springfield, 5:05 p.m.
   Friday -- Capitals at Kansas City, 5:35 p.m.
   July 22 -- Springfield at Capitals (with Querrey, Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   July 24 -- Orange County (with Lindsay Davenport) at Capitals (with Kevin Anderson, Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   July 25 -- Capitals (with Vandeweghe) at Orange County, 7 p.m.
   July 27 -- Philadelphia (with Mark Philippoussis) at Capitals (with Anderson, Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   July 28 -- Boston at Capitals (with Anderson, Vandeweghe), Sunrise Marketplace Outdoor Pavilion, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, 7:35 p.m., http://www.saccaps.com/.
   July 28-Aug. 5 -- OLYMPIC TENNIS TOURNAMENT, Wimbledon, www.london2012.com.