By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

Zachary Bellavance lived his wish.

For five minutes, the 16-year-old boy from Lewiston stood on an Australian court and returned the serves of one of the top tennis players, Andre Agassi.

“I was rusty at first,” said Bellavance Wednesday, beaming at the week-old memory. “But I got better.”

The encounter even launched the boy and the tennis star into the pages of the Melbourne Herald Sun, which published a photo of the pair and a story under the headline, “Agassi All Heart.”

The meeting was the highlight of a week lived large, organized by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. For 11 days, the Bellavance family – Zachary, his brother, Ben, and parents Eric and Diane – were treated like stars.

And it all grew from a wish made two years earlier, when the Camden-based foundation learned of Zachary’s illness.

For 14 months, the boy endured chemotherapy treatments to fight a tumor in his brain. The drugs made him sick, but they also stopped the tumor from growing.

While he recovered, the nonprofit foundation sent two volunteers, called “wish granters,” to his home. They would send him to Disney World if he wished.

A tennis fan, Zachary came up with another idea. He wanted to see the Australian Open. It took two years to organize.

“They do it all,” Diane Bellavance said. “It is amazing.”

On Jan. 16, the trip came true. It began when the family’s home was visited by a super-stretch black Escalade.

They were driven to Boston, where they caught their plane east. The British Airways flight stopped in London and Singapore before touching down in Melbourne.

The first day was quiet as they recuperated from the 16-hour time change. Then, they began their Australian adventure.

If there was something he wanted to see, tell them, the foundation workers told Zachary. They went to the zoo and a wildlife park. Mostly, they watched tennis.

Make-A-Wish gave the family passes to several center court matches featuring star players such as Agassi, Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova.

The Bellavances swept past crowds of thousands in Melbourne Park who gathered to watch the matches on giant video screens erected outdoors in the 85-degree weather.

Tennis stars

When they were ushered through security and into the players’ restaurant one afternoon, they were surprised by a visit from Andy Roddick, currently ranked No. 4 in the world.

He spent 30 to 45 minutes with the family, signing autographs, chatting about the weather and talking about his own career.

He was only a year older than Zachary when he first faced Agassi.

In his own way, Zachary, a member of the Lewiston High School tennis team, was about to beat that.

The day they met Agassi, he and Benjamin knew something was up. Their father made them brush their teeth and ordered Ben to change his shirt, which had a tiny smudge on it.

“We never brush our teeth in the middle of the afternoon,” Ben said.

At the tennis complex, they were escorted through security and into a restaurant where Agassi appeared.

Neither Diane nor Eric knew how the boys would react. The Make-A-Wish folks say kids tend to either clam up or get giddy when they meet famous people. Yet, both boys stayed calm.

“It was really cool,” Zachary said. “I’m not really a person who shows a lot of emotion.”

He smiled broadly as he recalled the meeting. Agassi presented him with an autographed racket, one of his own.

A few minutes later, Zachary was on the court with the tennis star.

He was struck by Agassi’s overwhelming strength. Agassi let loose with one full-power serve. He warned the teenager first.

The ball whistled past at an estimated 115 miles an hour.

Zachary tried to return it. But he didn’t get very far, he said, lifting his hand a few inches from his knee.

“I got the racket up about that much,” he said.