2009 Bank Of The West Classic Singles Draw

Serena and Venus are on opposite sides of the draw.

It looks like Serena is on the heavier side of the draw with Na Li, Jankovic, Lisicki, and Bartoli. Serena's first match against Na Li could be a tough one. But if Serena is serious about this tournament, she should win the whole thing or at least make it to the final against Venus.

Venus is on the same side of the draw as Sharapova and Dementieva. A Venus vs. Sharapova match would be interesting.

What if Serena has to play against Sharapova in the final? That would be very entertaining!

Vaidisova lost in the qualies to a player ranked in like the 580's! I mean, I know she's had a tough year or so, but come on. WTF!

V most definetely has the easier draw of the two. Didn't Na Li injure herself playing in the China National games (not the name, but I can't remember what's called)? If not, this could be a tough match for Serena, as you know how she likes to play her way into the tournament. Of course, I though she had a troubling draw at Wimby...what the hell do I know. lol

I'm hoping for a Jankovic win. And why isn't Safina playing this tournament?

Serena & Venus are playing doubles in this tournament! They are the number 2 seeds and won their first match. It is rare that the Williams sisters play doubles in a tournament that is not a major. They must be really serious about this tournament.

Serena & Venus have their first singles matches on today. I like Serena's doubles outfit. Venus is wearing the same blue/green/white patterned dress that she wore earlier this season.

Sharapova had to go to 3 sets to defeat Sugiyama. I saw some online pics of that match. I don't know if I like Sharapova's dress. I guess I will have to wait to see it on TV. Her next match could be against Venus.

This tournament will be televised starting Thursday on the Tennis Channel.

Actually, I know why they're playing Stanford. They said in one of their interviews (I think during Wimbledon) that their goal is to make the year-end championships in doubles. Currently they are ranked #2 in terms of qualifying for the year-end. I guess they decided they couldn't just rely on expecting to win the U.S. Open to gain enough points. I'm really happy they are motivated to keep on playing. I'm not sure if they can reach the #1 spot for doubles without playing more of a full schedule, but even ending the year in the Top 3 would be quite an accomplishment.

Serena has not been serving well in her singles matches. She cannot get in any first serves. Her next match will not be easy. She plays the big serving Stosur in the quarterfinals. Stosur played Serena really hard in Sydney.

Jankovic got past the big serving Lisicki, but has to play Bartoli in the quarterfinals. If I remember corretly, Bartoli overpowered Jankovic at the Australian Open and has a winning record against her.

Dementieva plays Hantuchova.

The Venus vs. Sharapova quarterfinal should be interesting. Sharapova has a winning record against Venus, especially on hardcourts. I hope Venus wins.

Looks like Jankovic is rivaling Serena for the biggest mouth in tennis:

FROM THE BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC AT STANFORD -
After a restful vacation on the Montenegro beaches, Jelena Jankovic is joyful again and says that she has put her horrific first half of the year behind her.

It’s hard to know whether the bounce in her step will be getting a lot of air time by the end of the summer, but she said she was to forget about her poor Slam results and focus on the task at hand, which is regain a measure of respectability, and back up her claim that when she’s right in the head and sound of body, that’s she can be the world best.

“I was playing without enjoyment and I had no passion and if you aren’t passionate and having fun it’s not the same,” Jankovic told Tennisreporters.net. “You are too nervous and my game was breaking down and you not the same player anymore.”

Jankovic admits she isn’t back to her top level yet, but she was resourceful and gutsy against German teenager Sabine Lisicki and survived 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the Bank of the West quarterfinals, where she will face the spunky Marion Bartoli, who said before JJ’s match that she’s rather face the Serb than Lisicki.

Jankovic’s game plunged to almost fathomless depths after 2008, when she snared the year’s end top spot by grinding away in the fall with a large amount of success. As all of her fans know, she blames a wrong-headed off-season training program for the results, where she put on 15 pounds, mostly muscle, as she hit the weight room and the track for short sprints.

“Every year I was making improvement and last year finished strong and I was beating all the top players and I was starting to dominate women’s tennis. Then I did all the running and lifting weights… Doing things not related to things that puts you off and can make you slower. I could hit harder but I lost explosiveness and in tennis that’s the most important thing.”

Instead of prospering, Jankovic lost her style base, as she was no longer able to tirelessly counterpunch foes to death from off the court, which at least partly explains her hair-pulling losses to Bartoli in Australia, to Sorana Cirstea at Roland Garros and to Melanie Oudin at Wimbledon.
But now she says she feel like dancing again and for the first time all year, when she goes to practice, is loving sprinting side to side.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’m re-charged. I have a clear mind for the second part of the season. What’s done is done and I want to be in the moment and go forward and get back to my form. I know I can play and move well and compete with the top players as good as I was, if not better.”

The Serbian is nothing if not bold. On Sunday, when asked about who the tour’s real No.1 is, Jankovic said that in her mind, Dinara Safina is not the world’s best player. She said that it’s important to play well in between the Slams and credited with Safina for doing so, but wouldn’t buy into the Russian as the tour’s true dominator.

“I think I’m the best player and I should always think like that, but if I had to pick someone after me, I’d pick Serena,” she said. “Serena moves well, is strong and more complete. To be number one, you should be complete and if you are number one you have to be beating the Williams sisters. I’m one of the rare players who has a positive record against the Williams sisters (Jankovic is 5-4 against Venus and 3-4 against Serena). Safina has beaten both of them twice (she’s 2-9 combined against the sisters). If you want to be No. 1, you have to be up there with them.”

She got a bit of her own medicine when a coy Bartoli said that she preferred to face crushed Jankovic rather than the German because ‘ I always beat her.’ Bartoli is 4-3 against Jankovic and has won their last three matches. JJ was a bit stunned to hear the comments.
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“She talks like she’s just Serena Williams,” Jankovic said. “Everybody had a right to say what she wants. I’m not really focused on Bartoli. She’s not like my biggest rival or someone I look up to or I’m scared of. She’s just one of the players on tour, not a big name, or someone who is making the big results or headlines in the game."

When she left the press conference to go for a doping test (something she wasn’t pleased about given that she might have to stay on site past midnight), Jankovic added with a smile, “Bartoli is going to get it tomorrow.”

http://www.tennisreporters.net/bowblogd4jj09.html

Serena just isn't as sharp if its not a slam. She knows that right now and in the end its all about the slams for her. She'd rather have them then say.....Rome or Madrid

Stosur def. Serena 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

I only saw a live online feed of the match that had no commentary. But from what I could see, Serena's 1st serve problems continued, she didn't really move for many shots, and she made too many unforced errors.

Stosur played extremely well, but this was a typical Serena loss in a tournament that was not a major.

I wouldn't be surprised if Serena has even worse results in any future tournaments that she may be scheduled to play leading up to the US Open.

It is likely that she has already decided that she has had enough match play before she defends her US Open title.

See previous quote....and its really ashame that she doesn't bring it to the non slams the way she brings it to the slams. Tiger brings it to every tournament even though he knows the big 4 are where its at. Serena really should have more overall titles, but she seems to only want to bring out her best effort for the slams. I mean if you are going to bring your best effort, bring it for the slams but its a sport that goes far beyond 4 tournaments a year.

I went to Venus-Sharapova tonight.

When we got there Monique's Charm School was in session and Bartoli was turning the tide against talky Jankovic and winning another match against her.

Venus just dominated Maria.

Maria's game just flat out isn't working right now. The serve especially, but overall she was error-ridden.

In person, Venus's serve is awesome.

The sound of Venus's shots was impressive -- she was hitting the ball so clean and hard. Her movement was terrific sometimes too.

I'm not sure how she'll fare against Dementieva, who is a lot more solid off the ground than Sharapova these days.

Might go tomorrow, depending on the schedule.

are there any post match quotes from the Big Marion-Big Mouth court fight?
Just to see if they continued their mouth fight too

On a different note, Nathalie Dechy recently announced her official retirement. She's pregnant

Well, I'm glad I didn't make the trek from SF to Stanford today because the whole journey would take twice as long as the Venus-Dementieva match.

Venus is really whipping her opponents. I wish she would do this at a hard court slam.

I see that Serena is back to crediting her opponents' "lucky shots".

Oh please!!! If you had read the whole article you would've seen that Serena was making fun of her own comments. She said that Sam hit lucky shots and hit a lot of frame shots. She then went on to say how well she was playing. Serena was just making fun of herself from those previous "lucky shots" comments she had made. I know Serena is a sore loser but at least get it right when you come for her.

As for Venus.....she destroyed Dementieva. Venus' forehand was simply AMAZING today. Venus took out the #1 player in the world 6-0, 6-1 at Wimbledon and took out #4 with the same scoreline. I'm sorry but thats pretty disgraceful as far as I'm concerned. Venus hasn't dropped a set. 1 hour and 6 minute warmup against Demented. GO VEE!!!

Good God is there a creepier presence in tennis than Walter Bartoli? I wonder if he's ever been on the French version of To Catch a Predator?

Kudos to Bartoli for the big win today though. Venus served alot of doubles but Bartoli returned really well.

Oh my god Marion sure proved me wrong!! Her court coverage is ridiculous!!! I guess she can have her cake and eat it too. I have never seen anyone return Venus' first serve bombs so well. But, Venus had the momentum after the second set and just couldn't get a string of anything together!! Venus hasn't won an outdoor hard court tournament since 2002 which seems ridiculous!! Venus really played a mess today though. Serving was horrible and she was mopey and her errors were just crazy. Marion just making her hit ball after ball. I thought Venus would run away with the third set but it wasn't meant to be. Now after all that....Venus has to go play doubles when she probably doesn't feel like playin shyt!!!

oh gosh, after all the opportunities wasted in the second set and Venus levelling the set to 5-5, I thought Big Marion was fading away losing something like 26 75 61.
She proved me wrong. I was still not "betting" on her even when serving for the match again up 5-4 in the third. Venus played some good exchanges in the previous game and she immediately went 0-30 on Bartoli's serve...I thought "here we go: a reapet of the second set". And then Big Marion came up with 4 winners (or forced errors).

When she walks....with her shoulders position ...I don't know, but she looks like a 90 years old tired woman, especially compared to Venus "imperial" persona

Though she bugs me, I'm glad Bartoli's on tour. She's consistent at a time when the WTA is Error Central. She's unique amid the interchangeable -ovas. She's also very canny. Most of all she wants to win and plays like it, which is so rare. So much chronic mental weakness -- even amongst the top players.

Bartoli will never have top notch physical abilities but it doesn't matter much because of her precision, anticipation and craftiness. And she actually is kinda powerful and muscular in the arms/upper body these days. So while she'll always be pear-shaped, she's got more power now.

Good lord, Venus. It's on days like today that I wish I was more of a Serena fan instead. In these kinds of matches you can bank on Serena pulling through, whereas with Venus you know it's likely she'll blow it.

And appearances can be very deceiving: Bartoli does not fold in three-set matches. She's someone you don't want to be up against in those situations.

Some excellent points today. How long has it been since there was a tight and at times high caliber WTA final? Too long. Months at least.

Someone at Stanford needs a spanking for all the super-distracting loudspeaker nonsense throughout the match. Unbelievable. For all of that Silicon Valley smartness, pure idiocy when it comes to scheduling sports events next to each other.

It took MJ and others about 8 games longer than it took me to realize that Venus needed to hit behind Marion today. But it's easier to note those things while watching than while playing. It seemed like Venus would start to realize it, then get distracted again by her own sloppy play. Tennis is complicated.

well, bless her heart! so she knows what a sore loser she is, and can make fun of it. good, now maybe she can actually do something about it.

But I doubt it.

Well Venus and Serena win their first tour doubles event since 1999 and still leave Stanford in the winners circle for their doubles championship win!!! They are definitely looking to qualify for the year end.

Agree, a player like Bartoli is a nice change.

She sometimes can get some Seles-esque angles with the double-fisted groundstrokes, but never with the same bite and consistency that Monica could. And I agree that she's more of a thinker than many of the rubber-stamp players out there who went to the Slavic-Beat-The-Fuzz-Off-The-Ball-Point-Construction-Be-Damned-While-Shrieking-At-The-Top-Of-Your-Lungs Academy.

She's tricksy, like A-Rad(wanska), but with more power, and let's not forget she took out JHH when she was at the top of her game to get to the Big W final...today might have seemed like a nice revenge for the thumping Venus gave her back then.

She also seems comfortable in the spoiler role, à la Stepanek. She's also a very entertaining bane to Jankovic, to put it mildly.

It's too bad Bartoli a) has the creepiest father/coach/boyfriend combo in the history of tennis is streaky c) has crazy jerky ticks and rituals and d) has a crazy service motion, cause I love the way she hits the ball. I could really like her except for all that bs.

Venus was a disaster today, but credit her for how she competes. She was way, way off today and still kept that match close and really stepped on the gas in the 2nd when Bartoli got nervous. Too bad she couldn't sustain that in the 3rd and revert back to the mess that was the rest of the match.

Bartoli did return very well today, but what I like most about Bartoli's game, besides the hard flat drives she hits is how she redirects the ball. She's one of the best at redirecting, when she's on. And I agree with whoever wrote above, it is nice to see someone who wants to win and competes that way.

Good toruney for Bartoli...lets see if she loses in the first round this week coming up, or if she can sustain her good play.