STANFORD, Calif. (www.BankOfTheWestClassic.com) – The 2008 Bank of the West Classic doubles draw was announced Sunday afternoon at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium on the campus of Stanford University.
The doubles field will offer fans an Olympic preview as three teams will compete for the Gold Medal later this summer in Beijing, China, including the Belarusian pairings of Olga Govortsova and Darya Kustova, Japan’s Ayumi Morita and Ai Sugiyama, and the Russian duo of Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva.
Additionally, 11 other players in the doubles field will compete in the summer games including the No. 1 ranked doubles team in the world, Cara Black and Liezel Huber.
The Zimbabwean-American pair has combined to win three Grand Slam titles including Wimbledon in 2005 and both Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2007. The duo has been the dominant pair on Tour lately having won five Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles titles already this season.
The remaining seeded teams include No. 2 Chia-Jung Chuang and Francesca Shiavone, No.3 Gisela Dulko and Shahar Peer and No. 4 Tatiana Poutchek and Anastasia Rodionova.
Peer was one-half of the team that captured the doubles title each of the last two years at the Bank of the West Classic. Peer’s partner and tournament singles runner-up in 2007, Sania Mirza, is pairing up with the defending singles champion Anna Chakvetadze.
Main draw action begins Monday, July 13, 2008 at 11 a.m.
Tickets for the tournament’s opening rounds start at just $23. For more information, or to purchase tickets, call the box office at 866-WTA-TIXS (866-982-8497) or log on to www.BankoftheWestClassic.com.
The Bank of the West Classic, a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event, will be played July 14-20 at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium at Stanford University and 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 Olympus US Open Series.
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 US Open Series. A Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Tier II event, the Bank of the West Classic features a 28-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw with total prize money of $600,000. Held on Stanford University’s campus at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium since 1997, former champions include: Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Andrea Jaeger, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams. The Bank of the West Classic is owned and operated by IMG.
ABOUT BANK OF THE WEST: Founded in 1874 and headquartered in San Francisco, $62 billion-asset Bank of the West is the second-largest commercial bank based in California. Bank of the West offers a full range of business, trust, international and personal banking services. The bank currently operates more than 700 commercial and retail banking locations in 19 Western and Midwestern states. In 2008, Bank of the West ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Retail Banks in the West” by J.D. Power and Associates. Bank of the West's holding company, BancWest Corporation, is owned by BNP Paribas, a leading global financial services institution ranked by Standard & Poor's as one of the world's four strongest banks. More information is available at www.bankofthewest.com.