STANFORD, Calif. (www.mubadalasvc.com) – No. 1 seed Agnieszka Radwanska kicked off her tournament run with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Francesca Schiavone, highlighting main draw singles competition on Wednesday night at the Bank of the West Classic.

 

Radwanska, who has maintained a top-four WTA ranking throughout the last year and was a semifinalist at Wimbledon last month, easily closed out both sets after leading 5-1 in the first and 4-2 in the second. Schiavone, the 2010 French Open champion, was coming off a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Mallory Burdette in the first round on Monday.

 

Joining Radwanksa as other seeded players to advance on Wednesday were No. 5 Sorana Cirstea and No. 6 Varvara Lepchenko. Cirstea registered a 6-3, 6-3 victory over qualifier Coco Vandeweghe, who was looking to duplicate last year’s tournament run in which she emerged from the qualifying draw as a lucky loser. Lepchenko held off a late charge from Tamira Paszek, prevailing 6-4, 6-4.

 

Radwanksa will next face Lepchenko in the quarterfinals while Cirstea squares off against Olga Govortsova, who knocked off No. 2 seed Samantha Stosur on Tuesday.

 

In doubles play, the top two seeded duos of No. 1 Raquel Kops-Jones/Abigail Spears and No. 2 Julia Goerges/Darija Jurak advanced.

 

ABOUT THE BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC: The Bank of the West Classic is the longest-running women-only professional tennis tournament in the world and is the first stop of the Emirates Airline US Open Series. Owned and operated by IMG, the WTA Premier event features a 28-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw with total prize money of $795,000. Held on Stanford University’s campus at Taube Family Tennis Stadium since 1997, former champions include: Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Andrea Jaeger, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters.

 

ABOUT BANK OF THE WEST:  Founded in 1874, $62 billion-asset Bank of the West (www.bankofthewest.com), member FDIC and equal housing lender, offers a full range of personal, commercial, wealth management and international banking services. The bank operates more than 600 retail and commercial banking locations in 19 Western and Midwestern states. Bank of the West is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, which has a presence in 80 countries with nearly 200,000 employees.

 

ABOUT IMG: IMG Worldwide is a global sports, entertainment and media business, with nearly 3,000 employees operating in 30 countries around the globe. IMG’s areas of expertise are diverse and wide ranging: IMG College; IMG’s Joint Ventures in China, Brazil and India; IMG Media; IMG Events and Federations; IMG Fashion; IMG Models; IMG Art+Commerce; IMG Clients; IMG Academies; IMG Consulting and IMG Licensing. More information is available at www.imgworld.com.