STANFORD, Calif. (www.BankOfTheWestClassic.com) - Eight-time Grand Slam Champion Serena Williams will take the court Wednesday, July 16 at 7 p.m. for her opening match at the 2008 Bank of the West Classic being held at the Taube Family Tennis Center on the campus of Stanford University.
Williams will play the winner of Tuesday’s Gisela Dulko (ARG)-Michelle Larcher de Brito (POR) match.
Williams, the former World No. 1, has already won three Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tiles this year including the Tier 1 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami bringing her total career singles titles to 31. She has posted an impressive 31-4 singles record heading into this year’s Bank of the West Classic following her run to the Wimbledon final.
The Bank of the West Classic, a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour 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 Olympus US Open Series.
The list of past champions of the event reads like a Who's Who of women's tennis including Davenport, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Andrea Jaeger, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters.
Single-session tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by calling the box office at 866-WTA-TIXS (866-982-8497) or by logging on to www.BankoftheWestClassic.com. Tickets for the tournament's opening round start at just $23.
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.