Bellis, 16, to face top seed in Carlsbad quarterfinals

CiCi Bellis, playing in the Sacramento Challenger in July, outlasted
fellow U.S. teenager Katerina Stewart 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 on Thursday in
the second round of the Carlsbad Classic. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Kristie Ahn couldn't beat top-seeded Yanina Wickmayer.
   Now CiCi Bellis will try.
   Wickmayer, a 6-foot (1.82-meter) Belgian, defeated Ahn, a 5-foot-5 (1.65-meter) former Stanford All-American, 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the $125,000 Carlsbad Classic in the San Diego area.
   Bellis, 16, of Atherton outlasted Katerina Stewart, 18, of Miami 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in 2 hours, 22 minutes.
   Bellis, who lives minutes from Stanford, is playing in her first tournament in almost three months after a bout with shoulder bursitis.
   Ahn's former teammate Nicole Gibbs, a resident of Marina del Rey in the Los Angeles area, will face second-seeded Tatjana Maria of Germany. Gibbs and Maria advanced on Wednesday.
   Wickmayer is 10 years older than the 5-foot-6 (1.68-meter) Bellis. Both have had success in the U.S. Open.
   Wickmayer reached the semifinals in Flushing Meadows in 2009. Bellis stunned 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovenia in the first round there last year before losing to Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas, then ranked 48th, in three sets in the second round.