Bank of the West Classic, Stanford 2014

[Hoergren]

Tournament Info
Tier: Premier
Prize Money: $710,000
Surface: Hard
Director: Kim Hall Uliasz
Launched in San Francisco in 1971 and moving to Oakland in 1979, the longest-running women's-only event settled in its current home of Stanford University at the Taube Family Tennis Center in 1997. Bank of the West has been the title sponsor since 1992, showcasing a strong commitment to tennis.

Well we can't leave out Stanford can we - so here is a thread where you can help me cover this tournament. It's not so formidable good timezone for me but I'll do my best. Here is the maindraw:

1 WILLIAMS, Serena USA
2 BYE
3 DATE-KRUMM, Kimiko JPN
4 PLISKOVA, Karolina CZE
5 QUALIFIER
6 WICKMAYER, Yanina BEL
7 LISICKI, Sabine GER
8 IVANOVIC, Ana SRB

9 AZARENKA, Victoria BLR
10 BYE
11 WILLIAMS, Venus USA
12 QUALIFIER
13 STOSUR, Samantha AUS
14 QUALIFIER
15 TOMLJANOVIC, Ajla CRO
16 PETKOVIC, Andrea GER

17 CIBULKOVA, Dominika SVK
18 MUGURUZA, Garbiñe ESP
19 ORMAECHEA, Paula ARG
20 HANTUCHOVA, Daniela SVK
21 VANDEWEGHE, Coco USA
22 AHN, Kristie USA
23 BYE
24 KERBER, Angelique GER

25 SUÁREZ NAVARRO, Carla ESP
26 PUIG, Monica PUR
27 QUALIFIER
28 ZHANG, Shuai CHN
29 GARCIA, Caroline FRA
30 LEPCHENKO, Varvara USA
31 BYE
32 RADWANSKA, Agnieszka POL

Weather in Stanford is fairly hot today 28 C BUT the coming week looks to be a bit colder. Monday, Thursday 22 C and Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday around 25 C. Quite chilly at night with temperatures around 11 C . Might be rain delays Friday to Sunday. Wind 12-17 mph.

TV is on from 2nd round and is covered by Tennis Channel and later in the week ESPN and you can of course find a stream on the vampire site :

http://www.drakulastream.eu/tennis-live-streaming-video.html

 

[Hoergren]

Exciting players to watch:

Victoria Azarenka who's got a wildcard for this event. Back after a long injury period. Hope she's totally recovered - here she's arrived in STanford making a selfie for us:

Serena Williams - how is she? - fully recovered? Here she's with some friends enjoying a good meal and sharing some laughs:

And Serena is in place too trining - good to see:

Probably more players to write about - feel free to do so.

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

Just too many stars to mention. Strong field gathered here for this premier tourny.
The bottom half of the draw looks much easier than the top half.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

^ Indeed what a lopsided and top heavy draw....my first impressions looking at the draw

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Form is questionable for Serena,Vika,Venus
One first rd match in the top half that stands out to me is between Ivanovic v Lisicki? either player will be out in the first rd.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Bottom half of the draw,defending champion Cibulkova has a tough rd 1 match against Garbine Muguruza,Garbine defeated Cibulkova in their only previous meeting on grass.Radwanska and Kerber are also in the bottom half of the draw.Kerber could meet Cibulkova in the quarter final.

 

[Hoergren]

Order of play Monday, July 28, 2014

Stadium
11:00 - Kimiko Date-Krumm (JPN) V Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 16 36
13:00 - Samantha Stosur (AUS) V Naomi Osaka (JPN) 64 67 57:nono
15:00 - Caroline Garcia (FRA) V Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 46 36
19:00 - Ajla Tomljanovic (CRO) V [8] Andrea Petkovic (GER) 16 46
21:00 - Coco Vandeweghe (USA) V Kristie Ahn (USA) 62 75

Court 6
12:00 - Eva Hrdinova / Andreja Klepac (CZE / SLO) V [3] Garbine Muguruza / Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP / ESP) 46 26
14:00 - Sachia Vickery (USA) V Shuai Zhang (CHN) 61 62
15:30 - Mirjana Lucic-Baroni / Karolina Pliskova (CRO / CZE) V Darija Jurak / Megan Moulton-Levy (CRO / USA) 46 64 10-7

 

[Hoergren]

The following streaming site claims that there is tv from Monday too - nice if it's true:

http://www.sportcategory.com/c-4.html

Sorry for all the adds. You can prevent this if you use firefox by using a plugin called GHOSTERY (remember to go through the introduction) - it stops trackers or programs following your internet habits eg. there are 2 with Tennisfrontier - 1 from Google - Google Analytics - and the other - Generic Affiliate Systems. Then you can use NOSCRIPT which blocks all script to a site. There you have to decide which script you can allow and many times you can find the script which makes a stream work and avoid 4-5 other scrips which belongs to different adds. Those two programs/plugins work perfectly together. SOrry IE users but NOSCIPT won't work - see the message if you try

http://noscript.net/ - works only with FIREFOX. NoScript provides the most powerful anti-XSS and anti-Clickjacking protection ever available in a browser.It's an Italian team of developers behind this open source program.

https://www.ghostery.com/en/ - works with FIREFOX and IE and other browsers.

PS. Not many trackers with Tennisfrontier and they are harmless - try the WTA homepage - there are 9!

 

[ozza]

There is no official streams from Monday. Streaming is limited throughout the week.

You can watch every match here though: http://streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/.

That is a campus stream.

 

[Hoergren]

There is no official streams from Monday. Streaming is limited throughout the week. The official streaming is poor all US hard court season, except for in Montreal.

You can watch every match here though: http://streamingtennis.com/Cardinal/.

That is a campus stream.

Fantastic and in a very good quality and FREE of reporters why can't they do that from all tournaments.

 

[special700]

Form is questionable for Serena,Vika,Venus
One first rd match in the top half that stands out to me is between Ivanovic v Lisicki? either player will be out in the first rd.

Really!!!!!

 

[Hoergren]

Order of play Tuesday 29 July 2014

STADIUM Starting at: 11:00 am
[Q]Carol ZHAO (CAN) vs Yanina WICKMAYER (BEL) 62 10 ret. surprise
Not Before 1:00 pm
Dominika CIBULKOVA (SVK) [6] vs Garbiñe MUGURUZA (ESP) 26 64 26 surprise
followed by
Sabine LISICKI (GER) vs Ana IVANOVIC (SRB) [5] 67 16
Not Before 7:00 pm
[WC]Venus WILLIAMS (USA) vs [Q]Paula KANIA (POL) 63
62
followed by
Paula ORMAECHEA (ARG) vs Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK) 36 46
Court 6 starting at 11.00 am

Carla SUÁREZ NAVARRO (ESP) [7] vs Monica PUIG (PUR) 36 57 surprise
Not Before 12:30 pm
Mari OSAKA (JPN)/Marina SHAMAYKO (RUS) vs Varvara LEPCHENKO (USA)/Ajla TOMLJANOVIC (CRO) 16 06
Not Before 2:00 pm
Caroline GARCIA (FRA)/Shuai ZHANG (CHN) vs Kristie AHN (USA)/Carol ZHAO (CAN) 36 61 12-10
followed by
Mirjana LUCIC-BARONI (CRO)/Karolina PLISKOVA (CZE) vs Alla KUDRYAVTSEVA (RUS)/Anastasia RODIONOVA (AUS) [2] 16 06

 

[Hoergren]

Stosur stunned by a 16 year old - currently 406 in the rankings. The 16-year-old Naomi Osaka came into this week ranked No.406, and her wins here in qualifying were her first at the WTA level.

This is part of an article written on WTAs homepage:

After dropping serve for the first time to lose the first set, Osaka stayed strong in taking a 5-3 lead in the second set. It was eventually settled in a tie-break, where down match point at 7-6, Osaka won three straight points to force a third set.

This time Stosur took a 5-3 lead and this time Osaka rallied, taking the last four games of her two-and-a-half-hour, 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 victory.

This was Osaka's biggest win by far, as she had never previously beaten a Top 100 player. As for Stosur, it was her first loss to someone outside the Top 400 since 2002.

Next up is Andrea Petkovic - wonder how that will go. Naomi will jump in the rankings. Currently she's #274 (or around that)

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Stosur usually leaves her brain in the checked-in luggage and often it does not
arrive in time. She should try to bring it in her carry-on luggage.

Anyway great win for a teenager. Just when ATP is buzzing with teen action,
WTA shows that it has teens too.

 

[Hoergren]

From twitter

#WTA confirms that Lisicki hit a 131 mph serve in loss to Ivanovic, fastest ‘recorded' serve in tour history. Eclipses Venus’ at 129 mph.

Sabine Lisicki ‏@sabinelisicki

Well...at least I broke the world record for fastest serve on @WTA ... #131mph #history #record

 

[TennisFanatic7]

From twitter

#WTA confirms that Lisicki hit a 131 mph serve in loss to Ivanovic, fastest ‘recorded' serve in tour history. Eclipses Venus’ at 129 mph.

Beat me to it by 2 minutes

 

[GameSetAndMath]

From twitter

#WTA confirms that Lisicki hit a 131 mph serve in loss to Ivanovic, fastest ‘recorded' serve in tour history. Eclipses Venus’ at 129 mph.

Beat me to it by 2 minutes

At that kind of speed, you need a reaction time of fraction of a second; 2 minutes won't do it. :nono

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

I see #6 and #7 seed already bit the turf.

With Stosur out , I can see Petko making a deep run here.

Venus advanced, she will get Vika next.
I like that match-up.

Early casualties will be the norm here.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Ana Ivanovic became the first player to get to 40 WTA-level match wins this year,with her defeat of Sabine Lisicki.

 

[Hoergren]

Order of play Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Stadium
11:00 - Monica Puig (PUR) V Sachia Vickery (USA) 76 26 16
13:00 - Varvara Lepchenko (USA) V [2] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 63 36 64 big surprise
15:00 - Naomi Osaka (JPN) V [8] Andrea Petkovic (GER) 26 26
19:00 - [1] Serena Williams (USA) V Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 75 62
21:00 - [4] Hao-Ching Chan / Andrea Petkovic (TPE / GER) V Paula Kania / Katerina Siniakova (POL / CZE) 62 36 8-10

Court 6
13:30 - Daniela Hantuchova / Arantxa Parra Santonja (SVK / ESP) V Daria Gavrilova / Yi-Fan Xu (RUS / CHN) 36 76 10-8
15:00 - Caroline Garcia / Shuai Zhang (FRA / CHN) V [3] Garbiñe Muguruza / Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP / ESP) 06 57