Catherine Cartan "CiCi" Bellis was born on April 8,1999 and is an American former tennis player.
43 Facts About CiCi Bellis
2.
CiCi Bellis is known for winning a match at the 2014 US Open as a 15 year old against a top-20 opponent, making her the youngest match-winner at the US Open since 1996.
3.
CiCi Bellis won seven singles titles and two doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
4.
CiCi Bellis had an accomplished junior season the same year she played in her first US Open, finishing the 2014 season as the ITF Junior World Champion for holding the year-end world No 1 junior ranking.
5.
CiCi Bellis won the USTA National Junior Championship that year at 15 to become the youngest winner of the event since Lindsay Davenport in 1991.
6.
CiCi Bellis started playing tennis at age three, but only chose to focus on it over soccer when she was ten years old.
7.
CiCi Bellis began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit in late 2012 and mostly participated in low-level Grade-4 tournaments through the end of 2013.
8.
In 2014, CiCi Bellis played only Grade-B1, Grade-1, and Grade-A tournaments, the three highest levels on the junior circuit.
9.
CiCi Bellis had an impressive start to the year by reaching the final at her first five events, winning four of them.
10.
CiCi Bellis followed up this success by reaching the French Open doubles final with Marketa Vondrousova, which they lost in a match tiebreak.
11.
In contrast, CiCi Bellis struggled at the three Grand Slam singles events she entered that year, with her best result being a third round appearance at the French Open.
12.
The trio won the title and CiCi Bellis went undefeated in seven matches.
13.
CiCi Bellis finished the season as only the second American since 1982 to be No 1 in the year-end girls' junior rankings, earning her the title of 2014 ITF World Champion.
14.
CiCi Bellis closed out her junior career by reaching the semifinals at the 2015 French Open, her best singles result at a Grand Slam tournament and the only junior event she played that year.
15.
CiCi Bellis played her first few low-level professional events in early 2014, and won a doubles title at the $10k event in Orlando in March.
16.
CiCi Bellis entered the 2014 US Open ranked No 1208 with just two professional match wins in singles, both against players ranked outside the top 300.
17.
CiCi Bellis was the youngest American to win a match at the US Open since Mary Joe Fernandez in 1986.
18.
CiCi Bellis was unable to win her next match, losing in three set loss to 20 year old Zarina Diyas in the second round.
19.
In 2015, CiCi Bellis was handed a wildcard into the main draw of the Miami Open, her first Premier Mandatory tournament.
20.
CiCi Bellis avenged her US Open loss to Zarina Diyas in the second round, before losing to No 1 eventual champion, Serena Williams.
21.
CiCi Bellis would reach a new career-high of No 152 in the world during the summer.
22.
Towards the end of the year, CiCi Bellis attempted to qualify for the US Open but fell one match short.
23.
CiCi Bellis began the 2016 season ranked No 248 and got off to a slow start.
24.
CiCi Bellis did not return to the top 200 until the summer, after playing in the Stanford Classic, a Premier tournament.
25.
CiCi Bellis received a wildcard into the main draw and defeated No 38, Jelena Ostapenko, and compatriot Sachia Vickery, before losing to top seed Venus Williams.
26.
CiCi Bellis then improved on her result from two years earlier by reaching the third round, where she lost to the eventual champion Angelique Kerber, in straight sets.
27.
Towards the end of the season, CiCi Bellis caught fire and won her final three tournaments of the year.
28.
CiCi Bellis then extended her match win streak to 14 with a WTA 125 title at the Hawaii Open in Honolulu.
29.
CiCi Bellis capped off the tournament with a win over world No 23 Zhang Shuai in the final, the second highest ranked player she ever defeated.
30.
CiCi Bellis finished the year ranked No 75 and the only player under 18 in the top 100.
31.
CiCi Bellis played her first main draw of the year at the Dubai Championships, where she made her first Premier 5-quarterfinal and extended her main-draw win streak at all levels to 17 matches.
32.
CiCi Bellis played in her first WTA Tour clay-court season and reached quarterfinals at the Rabat Grand Prix in Morocco.
33.
CiCi Bellis made another third-round appearance at a Grand Slam tournament at the French Open and became just the third American aged 18-or-under to make it this far at the major in Paris since the turn of the century.
34.
CiCi Bellis had a strong grass-court season with her first WTA semifinal at the Mallorca Open.
35.
CiCi Bellis dropped just two games against No 14 Petra Kvitova to get to the semifinals, where she lost to compatriot CoCo Vandeweghe.
36.
CiCi Bellis played at the Rogers Cup and recorded a second top-ten victory, this time over No 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova.
37.
CiCi Bellis then finished the season on a five match losing-streak.
38.
Nonetheless, CiCi Bellis won the WTA Newcomer of the Year award for her rankings achievement and her solid performance across all surfaces.
39.
CiCi Bellis defeated world No 5, Karolina Pliskova, and reached the quarterfinals at the Qatar Ladies Open.
40.
CiCi Bellis eventually had four surgeries in June, September, November and March of 2019 on her wrist, arm and elbow.
41.
CiCi Bellis returned to tennis in November 2019 at the Houston Challenger after 18 months away from the game while she recovered from injuries.
42.
CiCi Bellis lost in the third round to the eventual champion, Kirsten Flipkens.
43.
At the 2020 Australian Open, CiCi Bellis defeated 22nd ranked Karolina Muchova in the second round, before falling to world No 17, Elise Mertens.