Radwanska, Venus top Stanford acceptance list

Agnieszka Radwanska
2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Two top-10 players head the acceptance list for the Bank of the West Classic.
   No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and No. 9 Venus Williams of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., have entered the July 18-24 tournament at Stanford's Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
   Radwanska, 27, will make her seventh appearance in the Bank of the West Classic and Williams, who turned 36 on Friday, her 13th.
   Radwanska was the 2013 runner-up to Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia at Stanford and reached the quarterfinals last year before losing to eventual champion Angelique Kerber of Germany 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a 2-hour, 26-minute thriller.
   Radwanska also advanced to the Wimbledon final in 2012, losing to Serena Williams.
   Venus Williams has reached the Bank of the West final seven times, winning in 2000 and 2002. Her last appearance in the title match was in 2009, when she fell to Marion Bartoli of France.
   Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, was diagnosed with an incurable energy-sapping disease called Sjogren's Syndrome in 2011.
   A four-time Olympic gold medalist (once in singles and three times in doubles), Venus Williams will compete in the Games for the fourth time in August in Rio de Janeiro.

Venus Williams
2014 photo by Paul Bauman

    Entries in the Bank of the West Classic also include No. 19 Johanna Konta of Great Britain, No. 21 Cibulkova, No. 32 CoCo Vandeweghe of Rancho Santa Fe in the San Diego area, No. 70 Nao Hibino of Japan and No. 75 Nicole Gibbs of Marina del Rey in the Los Angeles region.
   Konta reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in January, and Vandeweghe was the runner-up to Serena Williams in the 2012 Bank of the West Classic. Hibino won the inaugural $50,000 Stockton Challenger last July, and Gibbs won three NCAA titles (two in singles and one in doubles) in her three seasons at Stanford (2011-13).
   Notably absent from the acceptance list are three-time Bank of the West champion Serena Williams and last year's finalists, Kerber and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
   Four wild cards will be added later. Former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was seeded first as a wild card last year but lost to Varvara Lepchenko of Allentown, Pa., in the second round after receiving a first-round bye.
   Tickets are available at BankOfTheWestClassic.com or 866-WTA-TIXS (866-982-8497).

BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC

July 18-24 at Stanford

Acceptance list (with world rankings)

1. Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland, 3

2. Venus Williams, United States, 9

3. Johanna Konta, Great Britain, 19

4. Dominika Cibulkova, Slovakia, 21

5. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russia, 23

6. Daria Kasatikina, Russia, 31

7. CoCo Vandeweghe, United States, 32

8. Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia, 38

9. Lesia Tsurenko, Ukraine, 42

10. Timea Babos, Hungary, 45

11. Misaki Doi, Japan, 48

12. Alize Cornet, France, 58

13. Varvara Lepchenko, United States, 63

14. Kateryna Bondarenko, Ukraine, 65

15. Su-Wei Hsieh, Taiwan, 69

16. Nao Hibino, Japan, 70

17. Nicole Gibbs, United States, 75
18. Saisai Zheng, China, 78
19. Mariana Duque-Marino, Colombia, 79
20. Magda Linette, Poland, 88