Serena Williams To Play Wednesday Night At Stanford

Lawn Tennis, Ace Tennis Magazine, Lawn Tennis Magazine

Serena Williams To Play Wednesday Night At Stanford
By Thurston Soros, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 5:11am PST USA

STANFORD-- Following her early exit earlier this month at Wimbledon, the top ranked American Serena Williams is set for a Wednesday night opening round match at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, California.

Williams, who received a first round bye, will meet either Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan or Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in round two.

Should Williams win her second round match, in the quarterfinals she could face the 5th seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia who upset her in January at the Australian Open.

In the semifinals, Williams could possibly meet her sister Venus Williams, who entered late as a wildcard entry or the 4th seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus; also a wildcard entry.

Serena Williams of the USA

Serena Williams took her first US Open title in 1999 as a 17 year old.

Venus Williams could face Azarenka in the second round should she win her first round match.

Serena Williams has won the Stanford hard court tournament the last two times she has competed in 2011 and 2012.

Stanford is a warm-up tournament for the US Open, the last of the four grand slams of tennis, which begins August 25th.

Williams took her first US Open title in 1999 as a 17 year old. The American then won in New York in 2002, 2008, 2012 and 2013.

However this year Williams struggled with a back injury in January at the Australian Open. She then looked tentative and error prone in both of her French Open and Wimbledon losses.

Williams has only won three WTA Tour tournaments to date this year; a low number for her but a WTA Tour season high so far this year. Maria Sharapova of Russia and Ivanovic share the WTA Tour leading number of tournaments won this year with Williams in a three way tie.

And despite her below par performance this year so far, Williams still tops the WTA Tour rankings 2,271 points ahead of the number two ranked Na Li of China.