Muguruza, Kvitova, American Contingent Come Out at WTA Stanford; Preview
Amazingly no former champions are in the field next week for the Bank of the West Classic. Former winner Serena Williams is out due to pregnancy, former champ Venus Williams is taking a break, and former winner Victoria Azarenka withdrew due to illness.
ADHEREL
Heading the field are former Grand Slam winners Garbine Muguruza and Petra Kvitova, as well as a fountain of American hopefuls.
Here is a look at the tournament slate:
BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC
STANFORD, Calif., USA; surface: hard
Seeds: Garbine Muguruza, Petra Kvitova, Madison Keys, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Ana Konjuh, Coco Vandeweghe, Lesia Tsurenko, Catherine Bellis
Floaters: Naomi Osaka, (WC) Maria Sharapova, Alison Riske, Alize Cornet, Francesca Schiavone
Notes: Only one Top 10 player in Muguruza, fresh off her Wimbledon championship, but the former Wimbledon champion Kvitova, Sharapova returning from injury and young American seeds Keys, Vandeweghe and Bellis make for an interesting field…
The Top 4 seeds receive opening-round byes…
Stanford for the women kicks off the US Open Series…
Opening-round matches of interest include (3) Keys vs. the Japanese riser Osaka, (WC) Sharapova vs. American Jennifer Brady, (4) Pavlyuchenkova vs. Riske, (8) Bellis vs. Cornet, and (2) Kvitova vs. Schiavone in a battle of Grand Slam winners…
Wildcards were awarded to Sharapova, Kvitova, Wimbledon girls’ champion and American Claire Liu, and former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka who subsequently withdrew from the tournament due to illness…
Other players pulling from the tournament were Timea Babos, Varvara Lepchenko, Kristyna Pliskova, Katerina Siniakova, and Wang Qiang…
Martina Navratilova has won the most titles (5) in Stanford, but Billie Jean King won it in three of the first four years. The tournament, which began in 1971 and is the oldest women’s-only event, started as the British Motor Cars Invitational on the Virginia Slims circuit…
Johanna Konta beat Venus Williams in last year’s three-set final…There are no former champions in the field.
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