SuperSaturday
STANFORD, Calif. (www.mubadalasvc.com)< – Palo Alto will be buzzing on Saturday as 17-time Grand Slam champion and World No. 1 Serena Williams takes on World No. 18 Andrea Petkovic at 2:00 PM, followed by a showdown between World No. 8 Angelique Kerber and Varvara Lepchenko in a not-before-7:00 PM start.
For tickets contact the Bank of the West Classic ticket office at 866-WTA-TIXS (866-882-8497) or go to www.mubadalasvc.com.
The first of the two semifinal matches pits Williams and Petkovic for the fourth time in their careers. Williams holds a 3-0 advantage over the 26-year-old German and is currently on an 11-game winning streak at the Bank of the West Classic. Seeking her 61st career WTA title and her third Bank of the West Classic title, the top player in the world will spend her 200th non-consecutive week at No. 1 in the WTA rankings next week, regardless of Saturday’s outcome.
Making her Bank of the West Classic debut, Petkovic defeated Ajla Tomljanovic, qualifier Naomi Osaka and Venus Williams en route to her fourth semifinal of 2014. If she succeeds in advancing to the Bank of the West final, she would be just the eighth person to defeat both of the Williams sisters in the same tournament. Petkovic won her fourth career title at Bad Gastein last month and achieved a career-best Grand Slam result by reaching the Semifinals at Rolland Garros in May.
In the evening semifinal match, Varvara Lepchenko faces off with the tournament’s 3-seed, Angelique Kerber. In her second Stanford appearance, Lepchenko recorded her first career win over a Top 5 opponent as she took down Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round, then defeated qualifier Sachia Vickery in the Quarterfinals for her 400th career win. The 28-year-old from Allentown, Pennsylvania will be making just her second-ever semifinal appearance as she looks to capture that ever-elusive first career WTA title.
World No. 8 Kerber cruised into her fourth semifinal match of 2014 by defeating Garbine Muguruza 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Making her main draw debut at the Bank of the West Classic, the three-time WTA title winner will be going up against Lepchenko for the 7th time in her career, with Lepchenko owning a 4-2 lead. This matchup will be the latest the two have ever met up in a tournament.
The Bank of the West Classic, a Premier WTA event, features a 28-player singles draw as well as a 16-team doubles draw. The event is owned and operated by IMG and serves as the opening women's event of the Emirates Airline US Open Series.
The list of past champions of the event reads like a Who's Who of women's tennis including Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Andrea Jaeger, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters.
The Bank of the West Classic offers several different seat options with prices to fit everyone's budget so reserve your seats today.
Log on to www.mubadalasvc.com for more information.
ABOUT THE BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC: Founded in 1874, $68 billion-asset Bank of the West (www.bankofthewest.com), Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender, offers a wide 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 190,000 employees.