The 2016 Bank of the West Classic is about to begin, part of the extremely compressed summer tennis schedule because of the Summer Olympic Games in Rio. This is the much bigger women’s tennis event next week, compared to the tournament in Washington, D.C. Stanford University’s tennis center attracts the brighter names in tennis, making this an event many players want to be part of.
The competition in the 28-player main draw will begin on Monday, July 18.
Event Details
Event: Bank of the West Classic
Category: WTA Premier Level
Date: July 18 – July 24, 2016
Location: Taube Family Tennis Center – Stanford University / Palo Alto, California
With a prize money allotment of nearly $730,000, this tournament offers a lot more than Washington, something in the area of $500,000 more distributed among all the players. This isn’t as prestigious as the Premier 5 or Premier Mandatory tournaments, but for the Premier level, it’s still more lucrative than other comparative tournaments. Washington is, by comparison, an International Level event, much less substantial in a bigger context.
The points structure under the WTA system is that for the women, the championship at a Premier classification means 470 points. A runner-up finish is worth 305. A semifinal result is 185 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 100 points. Round-of-16 results will give 55 points.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2015 – Angelique Kerber def. Karolina Pliskova – 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
2014 – Serena Williams def. Angelique Kerber – 7-6, 6-3
2013 – Dominika Cibulkova def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
2012 – Serena Williams def. CoCo Vandeweghe – 7-5, 6-3
2011 – Serena Williams def. Marion Bartoli, 7-5, 6-1
Player Info:
While Venus Williams will be the top seed. She has not been very strong on the hard courts this season. Of course, everyone knows that she’s struggled overall, but she has done relatively well on grass (5-1). On the hard surfaces, she is just 5-4 on the year. Dominika Cibulkova will be the number two seed on the opposite side of the draw. Venus and Cibulkova get byes into the second round. They both reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, with Venus going a step further and reaching the semifinals.
Cibulkova could be an interesting bet. She has had a relatively strong season when you don’t include outdoor hard court surfaces. On indoor hard courts, she’s 7-1, on clay, she was 9-3 and she was 9-1 on grass.
Johanna Konta is third and she’s 13-7 on hard courts. CoCo Vandeweghe is fourth but she hasn’t played great on the hard courts. She is just 8-7 on the year. Those two players will be placed into the opposite halves of this draw as well and receive accompanying byes. Misaki Doi is the fifth seed but she’s struggled on the hard courts this season. She’s just 3-8 on hard courts this year. She’s likely one player you’ll want to avoid betting to win it all. Jelena Ostapenko is sixth. Alize Cornet is seventh and is currently ranked 51st in the world. However, she has done OK on the hard court surface this year with seven wins in 10 appearances. She should be able to at least make it through a couple of rounds even though she is a lower seed. Varvara Lepchenko is the eighth seed at this event but keep in mind that she hasn’t been very strong this year. She’s just 8-8 on the year.
Taube Family Tennis Center
The Taube Tennis Center is one of the most beautiful tennis facilities you’ll find in Northern California. The TTC houses both men’s and women’s events for Stanford tennis and action on the professional tours. It was originally built in 1926 but has undergone many renovations and changes since. Nowadays, it’s now two different sites, which is broken down to the Taube Family Tennis Stadium and the Taube South Courts. In total, they seat about 3,500 people.
The facility was originally constructed with 11 courts, but today it has 17. The tennis complex has six lighted courts, allowing for plenty of night tennis removed from a punishing summer sun. A lot of tournaments on tour do not have the capacity to host night matches. Stanford is a popular tour stop for many reasons, this being one of them.
