Bellis Continues To Roll, Reaches Mallorca Semifinals

June 23, 2017 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff

CiCi Bellis is making her professional debut on grass at the Mallorca Open this week, but you wouldn’t know it by the way she has performed thus far. That outstanding play continued on Friday, as the 18-year old American moved into the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-2 drubbing of Kristyna Pliskova.

“It’s definitely one of the biggest achievements so far in my career,” said Bellis. “Grass suits my game. I would say my movement was a big strength [today]—I think I got to a lot of balls and my defense was really good.”

Bellis used her movement and powerful groundstrokes to move Pliskova all over the court, hitting 26 winners and just six unforced errors in the process, to roll to the straight-set victory.

She moves on to play Germany’s Julia Goerges, who knocked off her compatriot Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 6-4 on Friday.

The other Mallorca semifinal will see second-seed Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia take on France’s Caroline Garcia.

Sevastova outlasted seventh-seed Croat Ana Konjuh 7-5, 1-6, 7-6(5), while Garcia beat Jana Cepelova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 in the other two quarterfinals on Friday. 


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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