By Town Crier Staff Report
Serena Williams, the top-ranked player in women’s tennis, will be sitting this one out, but older sister Venus is scheduled to compete in next week’s Bank of the West Classic at Stanford University.
Venus - ranked No. 2 in the world - heads an impressive list of pros set to participate in the WTA Tour Tier II event, which runs Monday through July 27 at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles, who have each claimed a pair of singles titles at the Bank of the West, and defending tourney champion Kim Clijsters are also slated to play. Justine Henin, the 2002 German Open champ, and Jelena Dokic, who won this year’s Birmingham Open, have committed as well.
Venus won the Bank of the West two years ago. She lost to Serena in the Wimbledon final earlier this month, breaking her two-year reign as Wimbledon champ. Venus owns 25 career WTA Tour singles titles, including four Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal.
Belgian Clijsters, ranked No. 5, has won seven career WTA Tour singles titles and defeated compatriot Henin to make it to the semifinals of this year’s Australian Open. The 18-year-old has earned more than $1.8 million in career prize money.
Dokic, ranked No. 7, made it to the Wimbledon semifinals before losing to Davenport. Since turning pro in 1998, she has captured five WTA Tour singles titles. This year she won both the singles and doubles titles at the Sarasota Open, along with the singles crown at the Birmingham Open.
Davenport, ranked No. 8, holds 37 career WTA Tour singles titles, including three Grand Slam crowns and an Olympic gold medal. She has earned more than $14 million in career prize money and has spent a total of 37 weeks ranked No. 1 in the world. The 25-year-old Southern California native also holds 31 career WTA Tour doubles titles.
Davenport has been sidelined since late 2001 due to a right-knee injury and the Bank of the West is slated to be her first tournament of the year.
Other top-25 players set to play at the Bank of the West include No. 16 Meghann Shaughnessy (United States), No. 17 Anna Smashnova (Israel), No. 21 Daja Bedanova (Czech Republic), No. 23 Tatiana Panova (Russia) and No. 24 Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand).
Rounding out the field are Americans Lisa Raymond, Alexandra Stevenson and Chanda Rubin; Rita Grande and Francesca Schiavone of Italy; Emmanuelle Gagliardi and Marie-Gaianeh Mikaelian of Switzerland; Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic; Ai Sugiyama of Japan; Nicole Pratt of Australia; and Janette Husarova of Slovakia.
Four positions will be filled by qualifiers and three with wild card selections. One of the wild card entries has been awarded to Anna Kournikova, who reached the semifinals at Auckland, Tokyo and Acapulco. The other two wild cards will be announced prior to Saturday’s draw ceremony.
The tournament features a 28-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw, with prize money totaling $585,000.
Now in its 32nd year, the Bank of the West is the longest-running women-only professional tennis tournament in the world. The Taube Family Tennis Stadium has hosted the event since 1997.
Individual tickets are available through City Box Office at (415) 392-4400, or through Tickets.com at 478-2277. Box seat and weekend packages are available by calling (415) 227-8099.
For more information, visit www.bankofthewestclassic.com.
