CiCi Bellis Wins First Pro Circuit Title at Rock Hill $25K; Riske Claims First WTA Title in China; Pro Circuit Update

It's been a long travel day from Tulsa, so this is a brief post to run through the results from the Pro Circuit events that ended this weekend.

CiCi Bellis won her first ITF Women's Circuit title today in the $25,000 Rock Hill, South Carolina tournament, beating former University of Florida standout Lauren Embree 6-4, 6-0.  Bellis, who was unseeded, defeated fellow juniors Alexis Nelson and Katerina Stewart in the first two rounds, and with upsets throughout the early rounds, didn't face any seeds in her five wins.  Embree, also unseeded, beat three seeds to reach the final.

Bellis is on the qualifying entry list for the coming week's $25,000 tournament in Florence South Carolina, so she should receive a special exemption into the main draw there.  The acceptance list shows Stewart, Alexa Glatch and 2014 NCAA semifinalist Abigail Tere-Apisah of Georgia State receiving main draw wild cards.   In qualifying, which began today, Pan American Closed finalist Claire Liu advanced to meet Jamie Loeb of North Carolina.

Adam El Mihdawy, seeded fourth, won the $15,000 Houston Futures, defeating qualifier Lukas Finzelberg of Germany 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. Henrique Cunha(Duke) and Dimitar Kutrovsky(Texas) took the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds beating No. 3 seeds Jeff Dadamo(Texas A&M) and Evan King(Michigan) 6-4, 6-4.

The qualifying for the upcoming $15,000 Mansfield Futures is underway, with Pan American champion Michael Mmoh receiving a main draw wild card.

At the $100,000 Tiburon Challenger, top seed Sam Querrey picked up his third consecutive title in three weeks of Northern California challenger tournaments, beating unseeded Australian John Millman 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Second seeds Adil Shamasdin of Canada and Bradley Klahn(Stanford) won the doubles title, defeating unseeded Carsten Ball and Matt Reid 7-5, 6-2 in the final.

Alison Riske won her first WTA title in Tianjin China, defeating 17-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4 in the final. For more on the final, see the WTA website.

Also on the other side of the International Date line, Jarmere Jenkins claimed the singles championship at the $15,000 Futures in Australia. The top seed defeated unseeded US Open boys champion Omar Jasika of Australia 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to claim his fourth Futures title of 2014.