Bellis, 16, loses to Anderson in 100K Midland

Robin Anderson, 5-foot-3 (1.61 meters), beat CiCi
Bellis, 16, of Atherton 7-5, 6-3 in the second round
in Midland, Mich. 2013 photo by Paul Bauman

   CiCi Bellis could not back up her big win in the $100,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic.

   The 16-year-old amateur from Atherton in the San Francisco Bay Area lost to wild card Robin Anderson of Matawan, N.J., 7-5, 6-3 today in the second round in Midland, Mich.

   Bellis, the world's top junior at 15 in 2014, had ousted No. 2 seed and defending champion Tatjana Maria of Germany in the first round.

   The 22-year-old Anderson, only 5-foot-3 (1.61 meters), will play another U.S. teenager, qualifier Alexandra Sanford, in Friday's quarterfinals.

   The 17-year-old Sanford, who plans to attend the University of North Carolina in the fall, eliminated American Alexa Glatch 6-4, retired.

   In tonight's last match, third-seeded Nicole Gibbs of Marina del Rey in the Los Angeles region and Taylor Townsend of Atlanta beat Anderson and Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
   Gibbs won the 2012 NCAA doubles title with Stanford teammate Mallory Burdette.
   Townsend in 2012 became the first U.S. girl to hold the year-end No. 1 junior ranking since Gretchen Rush in 1982. The following year, Townsend played for the now-defunct Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis. 

   Gibbs and Townsend will play the winner of Friday's match between top-seeded Asia Muhammad and Maria Sanchez, a Modesto product, and wild cards Bellis and Ingrid Neel, 17, of Rochester, Minn. 

   Muhammad and Sanchez won the Maui doubles title last week.