Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion formerly ranked No. 1, will face American Jennifer Brady on Monday at 7 p.m. in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
Sharapova, a wild card who returned from a 15-month doping suspension in April, will play in a WTA tournament in the United States for the first time since March 2015.
Brady, 22, lost to defending champion Sophia Kenin, 18, on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the $60,000 FSP Gold River Women's Challenger in the Sacramento suburb of Gold River. Brady was seeded first at No. 77 in the world.
In Monday night's second match, former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs will meet 17-year-old Claire Liu, the reigning Wimbledon girls champion and world's top junior. Both players live in the Los Angeles area.
Eighth-seeded CiCi Bellis, who was born in San Francisco and grew up a five-minute drive from Stanford in Atherton, will play Alize Cornet of France on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Bellis, 18, is the youngest player in the top 50 at No. 43.
Following that match, 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, a 37-year-old Italian, will take on Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine.
Here are the Bank of the West qualifying draw and singles main draw and Sunday's schedule.
Veteran journalist Paul Bauman, based in Sacramento, covers Northern California professional, collegiate and junior tennis. Contact him at norcaltennisczar@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @norcaltenczar.
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