Teen Bellis upsets No. 18 seed in French Open

CiCi Bellis, shown during the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford
last July, ousted No. 18 seed Kiki Bertens today in the second round
of the French Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

   CiCi Bellis' former coach, Monique Javer, taught the junior never to lose to the same player twice.
   Good luck with that now in the pros, but the trend continued today.
   Two weeks after losing to Kiki Bertens, Bellis upset the 18th-seeded Dutchwoman 6-3, 7-6 (5) on Court 2 in the second round of the French Open. The 6-foot (1.82-meter) Bertens, also ranked 18th, reached the semifinals at Roland Garros last year and won her second consecutive Nurnberg title last week. She admittedly felt pressure to return to the semis in Paris.
   Bellis, an 18-year-old product of Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area, lost to Bertens 6-4, 6-0 in the second round of the Italian Open in their only other meeting. This time, Bertens saved four match points before dumping a drop shot in the net on the fifth.
   Bellis equaled her best result in a Grand Slam tournament. She reached the third round of last year's U.S. Open as a qualifier, then turned pro. Now the youngest player in the top 50 at No. 48, Bellis got straight into the French Open.
   By defeating Bertens, Bellis achieved her third career victory over a top-20 player. She stunned No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round at Dubai in February and, at 15 years old, toppled No. 13 Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of the 2014 U.S. Open. Cibulkova had reached the Australian Open final that year, losing to since-retired Li Na.
   "This is better (than beating Cibulkova)," Bellis, who reached the French Open junior doubles final with Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in 2014, said on rolandgarros.com. "It's huge. It's hard for me to believe I'm in the third round. On the final point, maybe her nerves got the best of her. Just really lucky (for me) on that points. I do love playing on big courts at these tournaments."
   Bellis recorded her sixth career win over a player who has reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal or better. Radwanska has advanced to one final (2012 Wimbledon), four semifinals and seven quarterfinals. Bellis also has beaten Timea Bacsinszky (2015 French Open semis plus the quarterfinals in the 2016 French Open and at Wimbledon in 2015), Shelby Rogers (2016 French Open quarters) and Zhang Shuai (2016 Australian Open quarters).
   Asked about the prospect of becoming a U.S. star, Bellis said: "I've been prepping for that since I was really young. If I keep working as hard as I can every single day, I'll get there for sure.
   "Pressure? I don't even think there's that much pressure that comes with it. It's more like encouragement. People want you to do well. I think it will be fine."
   Bellis will try to live up to Javer's edict again on Friday against 11th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who crushed 20-year-old Canadian qualifier Francoise Abanda 6-0, 6-0 in the second round.
   Wozniacki, formerly ranked No. 1 in the world, defeated Bellis 6-3, 6-2 on a hardcourt in the Dubai quarterfinals in February in their only previous meeting.
   Wozniacki is 14-9 lifetime in the French Open, her lowest winning percentage at any Grand Slam tournament. Her best result at Roland Garros, a quarterfinal appearance, came seven years ago.
   Bellis will rise to approximately No. 40 with a loss to Wozniacki and about No. 37 or higher with a victory.
   Javer, a 49-year-old resident of Hillsborough in the Bay Area, played professionally from 1985 to 2000. She climbed to a career-high No. 56 in 1992.

Querrey ousted early in French Open again

Sam Querrey, playing doubles at Indian
Wells in March, lost to rising star Hyeon
Chung today in the first round of the
French Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

   The struggles of Sam Querrey -- and U.S. men in general -- in the French Open continued today.
   Querrey, a San Francisco native seeded 27th and ranked 28th, lost to rising star Hyeon Chung of South Korea 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the first round in Paris.
   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey, who will turn 30 in October, has won only four matches in 11 appearances at Roland Garros. He has lost in the first round eight times, including the last three years, and the second round twice. He reached the third round in 2013.
   Chung, 21, is the fourth-youngest player in the top 70 at No. 67 (No. 53 Karen Khachanov of Russia is two days younger than Chung). He advanced to the quarterfinals in Barcelona as a qualifier, upsetting 20-year-old sensation Alexander Zverev in the third round, and the semifinals in Munich, knocking off 16th-ranked Gael Monfils in the second round, in consecutive clay-court tournaments recently.
   Chung climbed to a career-high No. 51 at 19 years old in October 2015 but missed three months last summer with an abdominal injury.
   U.S. men went 2-9 in the first round of singles in the French Open. The only remaining Americans are No. 21 seed John Isner and No. 25 Steve Johnson.
   U.S. women, meanwhile, went 8-7 in the first round of singles. Among the winners was CiCi Bellis, an 18-year-old San Francisco native who grew up in nearby Atherton. Bellis, the youngest player in the top 50 at No. 48, will face a Dutch player, 18th-seeded Kiki Bertens, for the second consecutive time on Wednesday.  
   The 6-foot (1.82-meter) Bertens, a semifinalist at Roland Garros last year, beat the 5-foot-7 (1.68-meter) Bellis 6-4, 6-0 two weeks ago in the second round of the Italian Open in Rome en route to the semis. Bertens then won her third career singles title, and second straight in Nurnberg, although the highest-ranked player she beat was No. 36 Alison Riske of the United States in the quarterfinals.
   Querrey will turn his attention to grass after he plays doubles with 20-year-old American Ernesto Escobedo in Paris. Querrey reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year for his best Grand Slam result, stunning two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in the third round.
   Bellis is now based in Orlando, Fla., and Querrey in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica.

Bellis, 18, wins French Open main-draw debut

   CiCi Bellis achieved another first in her blossoming career today.
   The 18-year-old San Francisco native, who grew up in nearby Atherton, won a women's main-draw match in a Grand Slam tournament other than the U.S. Open.
   Debuting in the main draw of the French Open, Bellis defeated qualifier Quirine Lemoine of the Netherlands 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the opening round in Paris.
   Bellis, the youngest player in the top 50 at No. 48, will face another Dutchwoman, 18th-seeded Kiki Bertens, in the second round. Bertens, a semifinalist at Roland Garros last year, beat Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
   The 6-foot (1.82-meter) Bertens dismantled the 5-foot-7 (1.68-meter) Bellis 6-4, 6-0 in the second round of the Italian Open in Rome on May 17 en route to the semifinals. Bertens then won her third career singles title, and second straight in Nurnberg, although the highest-ranked player she beat was No. 36 Alison Riske of the United States in the quarterfinals.
    Bellis reached the third round of the U.S. Open as a qualifier last year and the second round at Flushing Meadows at 15 in 2014. By stunning 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova three years ago, Bellis became the youngest player to win a match at the U.S. Open since 15-year-old Anna Kournikova in 1996.     
    Another San Francisco native, 27th-seeded Sam Querrey, is scheduled to meet Hyeon Chung, a 21-year-old South Korean, on Tuesday in the first round of the French Open.
   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey's best result in 10 appearances at Roland Garros is the third round in 2013. He has lost in the first round there seven times, including the past two years.
    Bellis is now based in Orlando, Fla., and Querrey in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica.

Virginia, Michigan players win NCAA singles titles

   Thai-Son Kwiatkowski pulled off an impressive double in the grueling NCAA Championships.
   Belinda Woolcock, however, fell short.
   Kwiatkowski, who helped Virginia win its third consecutive NCAA team title last week, defeated William Blumberg of North Carolina 6-4, 7-6 (5) today in an all-Atlantic Coast Conference men's singles final in Athens, Ga. Both players were seeded 9-16.
   Woolcock, who led Florida to the NCAA team title, lost to Brienne Minor of Michigan 6-3, 6-3 in the women's singles final. Woolcock was seeded sixth, and Minor was unseeded.
   Kwiatkowski, a senior from Charlotte, N.C., became the second Virginia man in three years to win the NCAA singles crown. Ryan Shane triumphed in 2015.
   Kwiatkowski and Blumberg played for the 12th consecutive day. Kwiatkowski lost to Blumberg 6-3, 6-2 on Court 2 in the team final last Tuesday, but the Cavaliers defeated the Tar Heels for their third consecutive championship.
   "Thank goodness the rest of the guys picked me up, because Will really took it to me when we met indoors last week," Kwiatkowski told reporters. "Today I felt that the coaches gave me a  really good game plan, one that was different than what we had before."
   Minor, a sophomore from the Chicago suburb of Mundelein, Ill., became the third Michigan player and first woman to win the NCAA singles title. Barry MacKay took the 1957 crown, and Mike Leach prevailed in 1982.                            
   "I'm still soaking it all in," Minor said. "When I threw my racket at the end of the match, I just felt this wave of relief because I was just so happy I could get that win. I was super tired, so I was excited to let that racket go and just be done with the match."
   Woolcock, a senior from Australia, also played for the 12th straight day. But Michigan lost to Stanford in the round of 16 on May 19, so Minor had four days off between the team and individual competition.
   Meanwhile, Andrew Harris added to his doubles resume. The unseeded team of Harris and Spencer Papa of Oklahoma edged top-seeded Robert Loeb and Jan Zielinski of host Georgia 4-6, 6-2 [10-6] for the title.
   Harris, a senior, won the 2012 Wimbledon and French Open boys doubles titles with fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios, now ranked No. 19 in the world in singles.
   In the women's doubles final, unseeded Francesca Di Lorenzo and Miho Kowase of Ohio State gave the Big Ten Conference a title sweep by nipping No. 5-8 seeds Maddie Pothoff and Erin Routliffe of Alabama 6-7 (6), 6-4 [10-7].
   Di Lorenzo lost in the first round of singles as the top seed to Pepperdine's Mayar Sherif Ahmed, a transfer from Fresno State.
   Routliffe won the NCAA doubles title in 2014 and 2015 with Maya Jansen, who played for Cal this season as a graduate student. Jansen and Maegan Manasse reached the NCAA semifinals, losing to Di Lorenzo and Kowase 6-2, 6-3.

Stanford's Fawcett falls in NCAA semifinals

   No. 9-16 seed Thai-Son Kwiatkowski of three-time reigning champion Virginia defeated No. 8 Tom Fawcett of Stanford 6-3, 6-2 today in the men's singles semifinals of the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga.
   Fawcett, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) junior from Winnetka, Ill., won his first four matches in straight sets.
   Kwiatkowski, a senior from Charlotte, N.C., is scheduled to play No. 9-16 William Blumberg of North Carolina on Monday at 8 a.m. Blumberg, a freshman from Greenwich, Conn., surprised No. 2 Nuno Borges of Mississippi State 6-2, 7-6 (1).
   Meanwhile, Maya Jansen and Maegan Manasse of Cal ended their collegiate careers with a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Francesca Di Lorenzo and Miho Kowase of Ohio State in a matchup of unseeded teams in the women's doubles semifinals.
   Manasse, a senior from Redondo Beach in the Los Angeles area, served underhand, and Di Lorenzo and Kowase stood far inside the baseline to return Manasse's first and second serve. The reason for Manasse's unconventional serve was not immediately available.
   Di Lorenzo and Kowase will face No. 5-8 seeds Maddie Pothoff and Erin Routliffe of Alabama on Monday. Pothoff and Routliffe dominated unseeded Ryann Foster and Joana Valle Costa of LSU 6-1, 6-1.
   Jansen, a graduate student, won the NCAA doubles crown with Routliffe for Alabama in 2014 and 2015. Manasse advanced to last year's final with Denise Starr.
   In other finals on Monday:
   --No. 6 seed Belinda Woolcock of NCAA champion Florida will  meet unseeded Brienne Minor of Michigan.
   --No. 1 seeds Robert Loeb and Jan Zielinski of host Georgia will play unseeded Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa of Oklahoma. Harris, a senior, won the 2012 Wimbledon and French Open boys doubles titles with fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios, now ranked No. 19 in the world in singles.
   Video streaming and live scoring of the NCAA Championships are available here.

Stanford's Fawcett reaches NCAA semifinals

Stanford's Tom Fawcett, playing in the $100,000 Fairfield (Calif.) Chal-
lenger last October, defeated Alex Ghilea of Oklahoma today in the
quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships. Photo by Paul Bauman

   No. 8 seed Tom Fawcett of Stanford outclassed unseeded Alex Ghilea of Oklahoma 6-2, 6-2 today in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga.
   Even though Fawcett, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) junior from Winnetka, Ill., has not lost a set in four matches, he said on georgiadogs.com: "I'm really tired right now; it's pretty hot. I think I played well (against Ghilea). I really tried to make the points short and not get too tired out there today, which I think I did pretty well. I won a lot of the deuce points today, which was big."
   Fawcett is scheduled to play No. 9-16 seed Thai-Son Kwiatkowski of three-time reigning NCAA champion Virginia on Sunday at 9 a.m. PDT. Kwiatkowski, a senior from Charlotte, N.C., outlasted No. 5 Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
   No. 2 seed Nuno Borges of Mississippi State will meet No. 9-16 William Blumberg of North Carolina in the other semifinal.
   Meanwhile, Maya Jansen and Maegan Manasse of Cal beat defending champions Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan of NCAA titlist Florida 7-6 (3), 6-2 in a matchup of unseeded teams in the women's doubles quarterfinals.
   Jansen and Manasse are set to meet unseeded Francesca Di Lorenzo and Miho Kowase of Ohio State on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Di Lorenzo and Kowase ousted No. 3 seeds Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi of Kentucky 6-3, 7-5.
   Jansen, a graduate student, won the NCAA doubles crown with Alabama teammate Erin Routliffe in 2014 and 2015. Manasse advanced to last year's final with Denise Starr.
   In the women's singles semis, No. 6 Belinda Woolcock of Florida will face unseeded Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami, and No. 9-16 Sydney Campbell of Vanderbilt will play unseeded Brienne Minor of Michigan.
   Video streaming and live scoring of the NCAA Championships are available here.

Stanford's Fawcett tops Cal's Lakat in NCAAs

   No. 8 seed Tom Fawcett of Stanford defeated No. 9-16 Florian Lakat of Cal 7-5, 7-5 today to reach the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga.
   Fawcett, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) junior from Winnetka, Ill., is scheduled to meet unseeded Alex Ghilea of Oklahoma on Saturday at 11 a.m. PDT. Ghilea, a 5-foot-11 (1.80-meter) senior from Romania, ousted No. 3 seed Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest 7-6 (5), 7-5.
   The top seed, Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State, also lost. No. 9-16 seed Thai-Son Kwiatkowski of three-time reigning NCAA champion Virginia defeated Torpegaard, last year's runner-up to UCLA junior Mackenzie McDonald, 6-1, 7-6 (3).
   McDonald, who grew up in Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, turned pro last June after becoming the first man since Mathias Boeker of Georgia in 2001 to sweep the NCAA singles and doubles  titles.
   Lakat, a senior from France, also lost in his bid to reach the doubles quarterfinals for the second consecutive year with Filip Bergevi. Seeded 5-8, they fell to unseeded Jerry Lopez and Reese Stalder of Texas Christian 6-3, 6-4.
   In the third round of women's singles in Athens, unseeded Sara Daavettila of North Carolina eliminated No. 9-16 seed Karla Popovic of Cal 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
   Cal's Maya Jansen and Maegan Manasse advanced to the doubles quarterfinals, beating Martina Frantova and Anna Rogers of North Carolina State 6-4, 7-6 (6).
   Jansen, a graduate student, won the NCAA doubles crown with Alabama teammate Erin Routliffe in 2014 and 2015. Manasse advanced to last year's final with Denise Starr.
   Jansen and Manasse are set to face the defending champions, unseeded Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan of NCAA champion Florida, on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
   No. 3 seeds Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi of Kentucky edged Hadley Berg and Paige Cline, South Carolina teammates from the Bay Area, 2-6, 7-6 (6) [10-5].
  Video streaming and live scoring of the NCAA Championships are available here.