STANFORD, Calif. - No. 1 seed Venus Williams needed three sets to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2016 Bank of the West Classic on Wednesday night, defeating Magda Linette 6-3, 6-7, 6-2.
Williams, the seventh-ranked player in the world, started strongly by winning the opening set. Down a break in the second set, Linette came back to force a tiebreak, eventually winning 8-6 and forcing a deciding set.
Williams raced out to a 4-0 lead in the third, cruising to a 6-2 set win. Williams’ quarterfinal match on Friday night at 7 p.m. will be against either CiCi Bellis or Sachia Vickery, who face off on stadium court Thursday afternoon.
No. 3 seed Johanna Konta defeated American wildcard entrant Julia Boserup 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals. Konta, who was the beneficiary first-round bye, will play Saisai Zheng in the quarterfinals. Zheng advanced to the round of eight after defeating Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-1 on stadium court Wednesday morning.
On the doubles side of the competition, former Stanford Cardinal standouts Carol Zhao and Nicole Gibbs lost a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Jelena Ostapenko and Arina Rodionova. Gibbs and Zhao faced each other in the first round of singles competition on Monday night, with Gibbs prevailing 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
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.
Tickets for the Bank of the West Classic are on sale now with individual session tickets starting at just $34.
The Bank of the West Classic also provides fans with multiple money-saving ticket packages that start as low as $192 for Night Session Packages, $265 for Weekend Packages and $620 for Full Week Packages. Groups of 15 or more can also receive discounts of up to 20%.
Log on to www.mubadalasvc.com for more information.
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 $846,000. 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: Bank of the West is a regional financial services company chartered in California and headquartered in San Francisco with $77.2 billion in assets as of March 31, 2016. Founded in 1874, Bank of the West provides a wide range of personal, commercial, wealth management and international banking services through more than 600 offices in 23 states and digital channels. Bank of the West is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, which has a presence in 75 countries with 185,000 employees.
ABOUT THE EMIRATES AIRLINE US OPEN SERIES: The world’s best players on the WTA and ATP World Tour are coming together for the Emirates Airline US Open Series, now in its 13th season. Linking seven summer WTA and ATP World Tour tournaments to the US Open, the Emirates Airline US Open Series serves as a true regular season of hard court tennis. In 2014, Serena Williams won the US Open and Emirates Airline US Open Series women’s title for the second consecutive year, earning a record tennis paycheck of $4 million. Rafael Nadal (2013), Roger Federer (2007) and Kim Clijsters (2005) also accomplished the feat of winning the Emirates Airline US Open Series and US Open singles title within the same year.