Bellis remains on fire despite wet weather

Persistent rain in Waipio on Friday was about the only thing to slow down Catherine “CiCi” Bellis’ recent roll.

The 17-year-old arrived at Central Oahu Regional Park with a 12-match winning streak and raced out to a 4-0 lead against Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain on Friday when rain suspended play 28 minutes into the Hawaii Open quarterfinal match.

The players, volunteers and diehard fans remained in a holding pattern for about five hours and 45 minutes before the weather cleared enough for play to resume.

When they did get back on the court, Bellis, the tournament’s fourth seed, needed just another 36 minutes to close out a 6-1, 6-1 win over the seventh-seeded Sorribes Tormo to advance to the semifinals of the first Women’s Tennis Association 125K Series event held in Hawaii.

“We kind of just sat down and didn’t do much, just tried to relax as much as possible,” Bellis said of waiting out the rain.

“It was definitely tough because we hadn’t hit all day and I’m just really glad I got through it.”

Bellis, one of the rising stars in American tennis, entered the week 92nd in the WTA rankings and coming off wins in her past two International Tennis Federation events.

She made a run to the third round at the U.S. Open in August before running up against eventual champion Angelique Kerber, now the world’s top-ranked player. Bellis announced that she turned pro in September and swept through an ITF swing in Canada in October. She extended her winning streak to 13 while dropping just 10 games in her first three wins in Hawaii.

She swept BYU-Hawaii senior Nannan “Dallas” Zhang 6-2, 6-3 in the first round and breezed by Usue Maitane Arconada 6-1, 6-2 in 55 minutes on Thursday before getting past Sorribes Tormo, ranked 109th in the world, on Friday.

“I think I’m just focusing on me and just focusing on my game and working really hard in practice and it’s been coming out in my matches,” Bellis said.

Bellis will next face unseeded Jacqueline Cako in the semifinals scheduled for this afternoon.

Cako, ranked 329th and playing in her first WTA main draw, pulled off her second upset of a high seed this week when fifth-seeded Sabine Lisicki retired in the third set.

Lisicki, ranked and a 2013 Wimbledon finalist, won the first set 6-3 but took a medical timeout down 5-3 in the second set and continued to have her right shoulder massaged during changeovers. She broke Cako’s serve and got back to 5-5, but Cako held and ended the set with a break.

“A lot of it was starting to make more returns and making first serves, because I did not want her attacking my second serve because she was hitting winners off of those,” Cako said.

Cako went up a break early in the third set and advanced to the semifinals when Lisicki couldn’t continue.

“I’ve been playing well all week and I’ve always known I could do it. A lot of it is just a matter of having the confidence and believing in myself that I can do it,” said Cako, a former All-American at Arizona State who opened the week by upsetting second-seeded Nicole Gibbs.

“It’s just a great feeling to be coming out here and playing good tennis and dealing with the wind pretty well and just playing well in general.”

On the other side of the draw, sixth-seeded Evgeniya Rodina of Russia outlasted unseeded Sachia Vickery 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Top-seeded Shuai Zhang closed the quarterfinal round with a 6-4, 6-4 win over eighth seed Samantha Crawford and will face Rodina today. Play is scheduled to start at noon.