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WTA Stanford Preview: Chaky, Bartoli Headline
Posted on July 23, 2007
STANFORD, CA, USA -- Six of the world's Top 20 will head for California this week to do battle for the Bank of the West Classic and all will be hoping to kick off the US Open Series on a high note. This hard-court event is the first stop in the five-tournament series leading to the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open.
Anna Chakvetadze is this week's top seed and she will be making her debut at the $600,000, Tier II event. The 20-year-old Muscovite enters the tournament in a rich vein of form, having lifted the title in Cincinnati on Sunday and she will be confident of a good showing at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium. This triumph in Cincinnati was the Russian's third tournament victory of the season and these successes have established her in the elite Top 10 -- she currently sits at a career-high ranking of No.7. Like all of the top four seeds, Chakvetadze will receive an opening-round bye in Stanford, before facing the victor in the match between American wildcard, Amber Liu and Greek No.1 Eleni Daniilidou.
No.2 seed, Marion Bartoli, comes into the tournament fresh from her memorable runner-up finish at Wimbledon and she will keen to maintain this form and get her summer hard-court season off to a flying start. It will be the 22-year-old's fourth appearance at the event and although she has never ventured beyond the round of 16, after a first half of 2007 in which she has accumulated an impressive 31 victories, she will be confident on improving the statistic this week. All three of the Frenchwoman's Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titles to date have come on hard courts and she will open up her campaign against the winner of the all-American clash between wildcard entrant, Lilia Osterloh and Jill Craybas.
Daniela Hantuchova, the tournament's No.3 seed, is making her third appearance at Stanford and will be eager to erase the memory of a painful first-round loss to qualifier Shenay Perry 12 months ago. The 24-year-old Slovak star has enjoyed something of a renaissance this year, compiling and enviable 31-16 win-loss record as well as capturing her second career title on the hard courts of Indian Wells in March. The world No.12 has also made it to the round of 16 at two of the year's three Grand Slams and with her hard-court pedigree she will be expecting a good run in her first event since Wimbledon.
Switzerland's Patty Schnyder was runner-up at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium in 2006 and she will be desperate to go one better this time around. Tour legend Kim Clijsters was her conqueror last year and with the Belgian absent this year after her retirement, the 28-year-old from Basel will fancy her chances. Schnyder currently sits at No.16 in the world rankings and has enjoyed a steady year on Tour, highlighted by a semifinal run in Rome and quarterfinal appearances at four other events -- including the back-to-back hard-court tournaments in Dubai and Doha.
The remaining seeds this week are comprised of Israeli star Shahar Peer (No.5), talented Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin (No.5), Slovania's two-time hard court tournament winner Katarina Srebotnik (No.7) and popular Austrian Sybille Bammer (No.8). There are also several dark horses lurking in the draw, including Cincinnati runner-up Akiko Morigami and high-flying Belarusian teenager Victoria Azarenka.
The Bank of the West Classic is in its 37th year as a Tour stop-off and is the longest-running women's-only professional tennis tournament in the world. The event is held on the campus of the famous Stanford University's and several tennis legends have held aloft the coveted trophy in the past, including Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Andrea Jaeger, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Davenport and Venus Williams. This year's winner will receive a cheque for $88,265, while the runner-up will take home $47,125.
-- Courtesy WTA Tour
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