We all remember the US Open last year for many reasons. Serena Williams finally tied Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova with 18 majors, Kei Nishikori stunned Novak Djokovic in the Semifinals, and Marin Cilic won the first major of his career. However, we also remember the 2014 US Open for Cici Bellis. Cici was the 15 year old (at the time) girl who defeated 2014 Australian Open Finalist Dominka Cibulkova in her first major on the WTA Tour. And while Bellis lost in three sets to Zarina Diyas in her Second Round match, it was a great start to Bellis' career.
To understand why Bellis hindered her development at the French Open, we must first look to last year. In 2014, Bellis played 11 tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit. Being only 14/15 during that year, it was certainly understandable that Bellis did not play on the main circuit. Of these 11 tournaments, Bellis played the Juniors in three of the four, excluding the Australian Open, (more on this later) and even the prestigious Metropolia Orange Bowl International Championship. And Bellis, for the most part, succeeded on this junior circuit last season. Not only did Bellis make the Round of 16 in the Junior French Open and the Semifinals of the Orange Bowl, but she also made the Final of a tournament and won four other junior circuit tournaments.
So, the fact that Bellis not only grabbed the chance to play in the main draw of the US Open, but also won a match is not a total shock given her recent form on the junior circuit. It was almost as if the US Open were merely icing on the cake. Bellis would play a couple more tournaments on the junior circuit, but the Orange Bowl would be the last junior tournament she would play for a very long time. By the looks of it, Bellis was moving up the ladder of women's tennis.
Bellis' next non-Junior tournament following the US Open was not nearly as glamorous. Playing at Captiva Island, a $50,000 dollar , hard court tournament at the very end of the 2014 season, Bellis lost in straight sets to Tatjana Maria. And while Maria is a decent player, she beat (a struggling) Bouchard this year, she was definitely an opponent that Bellis could defeat. After her what seemed to be her last Junior tournaments she would ever play at the end of 2014, Bellis next played at the beginning of 2015, in a $25,000 dollar, clay court tournament in Daytona Beach. Playing in her first match at the tournament Bellis got only six games in another straight set loss to Arantxa Rus. This was an opponent that Bellis definitely should have beaten, so the fact that she went down so meekly was indicative that perhaps Cici wasn't ready for the rigors of the professional tour.
However, Bellis definitively proved the doubters wrong. In her next tournament, she qualified for a $25,000 dollar event in Sunrise, and this time, she beat Maria in her first match. She even won the last set of the match 6-0. And while she lost her next match. to win four matches in a non-Juniors tournament was very impressive. A few weeks later, in one of Bellis' biggest successes to date, Cici won a $25,000 dollar hard court tournament in Rancho Santa Fe, only dropping one set in the entire tournament and losing a total of two games in the Final. Bellis proved that she could contend, even if it was merely a $25,000 dollar tournament.
But perhaps Bellis' biggest triumph since the US Open was her run to the Round of 32 in Miami, a WTA Premier Mandatory event. Bellis only lost seven games combined in her two wins in South Florida. This included a 6-2, 6-1 win over Zarina Diyas, a fantastic win given the fact that Diyas is currently the 32nd ranked player in the world. And while Bellis got destroyed by Serena Williams in the Round of 32, it was a great learning experience for Cici.
So, you might be wondering, what does this all have to do with Bellis' development at the French Open? Well, there are two things that my readers need to learn from all of this about Cici Bellis. First is what I mentioned at the beginning of the post, that Bellis has had a ton of success on the ITF Junior Circuit and had not played a Junior match since 2014. This certainly suggests to that Bellis has outgrown the junior circuit. Second is that, not only has Bellis outgrown the junior circuit, but she is holding her own, if not thriving on the professional circuit. She won a match at the US Open, won a couple matches in Miami, and even won a small tournament in Rancho Santa Fe. Playing a Juniors tournament seemed to be a thing of the past for Cici.
However, as we learned at the French Open this year, that was not the case. Bellis signed up for, and played qualifying for the professional French Open qualifying draw for the chance to get into the main draw of the tournament. But, qualifying ended up being a full-blown disaster for the young American. Bellis played Paraguayan Veronica Cepede Royg in the First Round of Roland Garros qualifying. Bellis lost the match 6-4, 6-0 in an extremely disappointing result for her. It wasn't extremely disappointing in the sense that she lost the match, it was more the way she lost it. The way Bellis couldn't hang with Cepede Royg must have deeply disappointed Cici.
But, this type of loss didn't necessarily hinder Cici Bellis' development. Sometimes, you have to go through losing in order to experience the winning that follows. Sometimes it takes a poor loss to really motivate a player to practice harder and develop a winning attitude. It's quite possible that Bellis' development could have been advanced due to the outcome of her match with Cepede Royg rather than hindered. This was not the case, however, because Bellis decided to take the "easy way out". She did this by playing in the Junior French Open.
Cici Bellis made the decision to attempt to play in the women's French Open main draw when she entered the qualifying draw. But, really, there wasn't even a decision to make. She had previously played six professional tournaments where she even attempted to qualify and/or was in the main draw since her last Juniors tournament and had not played a Juniors tournament this entire season. It was quite obvious that Bellis was focusing on the main tour and that playing other women attempting to make it on the tour was best for her development. But, yet, Cici shot herself in the foot.
It was later learned that Cici Bellis had signed up for the Junior French Open tournament. Now, I'm not trying to claim that Bellis didn't win matches at the Junior Roland Garros, because she certainly had a good tournament. Cici made the Semifinals, only losing one set in her first four matches. But, I propose the question, What good did this really do for Bellis? Despite the fact that she could have gained confidence from the Junior wins, for one, a lot of the players she played in the Junior French Open and others that she could have played, depending on the draw, are of a lower caliber than Bellis would be (and should be) playing in order to sufficiently improve Cici's game. But, it's more than that.
Playing at the Junior Roland Garros teaches Cici Bellis that when you lose, you can get a second chance to try to make everything right in your world. The world of professional tennis is cutthroat. Cici has hundreds upon hundreds of women, young and old, fighting just like her for a spot on the WTA Tour main circuit, and these women don't normally get a second chance in a $25,000 dollar or $50,000 dollar tournament in some random corner of the world. And while a counter argument may be, "Well, what about lucky losers?" (and trust me, I don't like those either), my response would be that while those are given out randomly (hence the "lucky" in lucky loser), Bellis made the conscientious decision that she deserved a second chance from her failure in the qualifying draw. She made the decision that she was entitled to a second chance.
Now, another doubt that may enter your mind is, "Why aren't you getting on her after playing Juniors after two matches in the main draw of the US Open?". And my answer is simple, her mindset was most likely much different at the time. Before those main draw matches at the US Open, Bellis had never played a match at the professional level in her life. When Bellis got the wildcard to the US Open, she most likely intended on playing a match to see what the professional tour is like for a match before returning to the junior circuit. And while that mindset may have a changed a bit once she beat Cibulkova, one must give her the benefit of doubt that with such little time to soak in the win over Dominka, her mindset did not drastically change in such a short period of time. So, for the US Open, I give Bellis a pass for playing in the Juniors.
But, I do not give Cici a pass for playing in the Junior French Open. In fact, Cici Bellis hindered her own development as a tennis player at the French Open as a result her decision.
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