By Chris Oddo | Tuesday July 19, 2016
Cici Bellis battled back from a break down in both sets to ease past an erratic Jelena Ostapenko in Stanford.
Photo Source: Tennis Now
Stanford, Ca. – Cici Bellis is considering playing tennis for the Stanford Cardinal when she finishes high school less than a year from now. On Tuesday, she used Stanford’s home court to pull out a giant upset on Tuesday night, knocking off world No. 39 Jelena Ostapenko to book her spot in the second round at the Bank of the West Classic.
Ranked 203, Bellis has gone 25-12 at all levels this season, but tonight’s win was her second at the tour-level, and her biggest by far. The American battled back from a break down in both sets, winning the final four games of the opener to take the lead then bouncing back from 4-1 down to take the final five games of the tilt.
Bellis struggled to make first serves but protected her second serve nicely, winning 17 of 29 points behind it.
Ostapenko, a promising player with loads of personality and jaw-dropping power, clearly owned the more explosive game, but the sixth seed was careless from the baseline and didn’t help her cause by tossing in nine double faults over the course of the 72-minute tussle.
After the match Ostapenko told reporters that she didn’t feel comfortable in the conditions and had trouble controlling the ball.
Bellis, measured and even-keel, played a tactically sound match and was more than happy to let Ostapenko gift her crucial points. In the end, the Latvian played into Bellis’ hands, teeing off from the backcourt and missing the mark more often than she hit it.
Bellis converted her second match point after netting a backhand on her first opportunity. "In the end, I was just a little bit more consistent than she was," she said in her on-court interview. "I just tried to make as many balls as I could—especially in that last game.”
The Northern California native then got emotional when she told the crowd that she wasn’t sure she would be able to play today because she had been hit in the eye with an overhead during her first-round doubles loss on Monday. Bellis said she lost vision in her eye momentarily and had to later be tested for a concussion.
“I was crying so hard and wasn't even able to see,” Bellis told the crowd. “So to even come out today meant so much to me."
The American will face Sachia Vickery in the second round at Stanford. 21-year-old Vickery defeated Elitsa Kostova, 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday night at Stanford.
Other winners on Tuesday at the Bank of the West Classic were Alison Riske, who defeated Varvara Lepchenko in a third-set tiebreaker and Urszula Radwanska, who defeated Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-4, 7-5. Magda Linette and Julia Boserup were also victorious.