Championship Week
Bellis wins Northern California Final in 12s
by Todd Holcomb, 17 August 2011
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Catherine "C.C." Bellis and Michaela Gordon brought a slice of Northern California to Alpharetta, Ga., last week at the USTA Girls 12 Super National Hard Court Championships.
Girls' 12s Champion
C.C. Bellis © Julie Wrege, TennisRecruiting.net
The girls - who occasionally practice together and live about 10 minutes apart in the Palo Alto area - reached the singles final, with Bellis winning 6-1, 6-1 at the
Windward Lake Club.
It was the second Super National title for Bellis this year. She won the Girls' 12 Clay Courts last month in Florida.
"I think that was more important than the summer clays because I've always loved this tournament," said Bellis, who finished third at the Super National hard courts last year. "It's probably my favorite to play the whole year. I love the site. It's so pretty, and I love the heat. I feel really loose when I play there."
Bellis said she had mixed feelings about playing Gordon.
"It's not good when you play a friend because you want to have a friendly competition and don't want it to be too serious," Bellis said. "But I played all nice people [in each round of the tournament]. I play a lot more relaxed when I know the people I'm playing are not unfair."
Bellis and Gordon trained together occasionally in the spring and previous winter with a former USTA Girls 12 Super National hardcourt champion in Lindsay Burdette, a former Stanford All-American who lives in the Palo Alta area. Burdette, a Georgia native, won the 12s at the same Windward Lake Club in 2000.
"When she told me that in the winter, I told her I want to win that title so bad," Bellis said.
Bellis came in confident, having just won a national and also finishing third the year before. She was the No. 1 seed.
