Past Bank of the West champs reach Wimbledon semis

Serena Williams poses after winning the Bank of the West
Classic at Stanford for the third time in 2014. Photo by
Tri Nguyen/TriNguyenPhotography.com

   Two past winners of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford reached Thursday's semifinals at Wimbledon, and another fell short.
   No. 25 seed Serena Williams -- who won Stanford in 2011, 2012 and 2014 -- topped unseeded Camila Giorgi of Italy 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 today. It's the first time that Williams, bidding to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles, has lost a set in the tournament.
   No. 11 Angelique Kerber, the Bank of the West champ in 2015 and runner-up to Williams at Stanford in 2014, defeated No. 14 Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 7-5.
   But unseeded Dominika Cibulkova, who won Stanford five years ago, lost to No. 12 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 7-5, 6-4.
   Williams, who has plummeted to No. 181 in the world rankings after having her first child last September, will meet No. 13 seed Julia Goerges of Germany. Goerges, playing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at age 29, beat No. 20 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
   Williams, 36, has never lost a set in three career matches against Goerges. They met for the first time in seven years in this year's French Open, with Williams winning 6-3, 6-4 in the third round.
   Williams is scheduled to play in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, July 30-Aug. 5 at San Jose State. The tournament replaces the Bank of the West.

Angelique Kerber poses with a stuffed bear after win-
ning the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
The grizzly bear is the state animal of California.
Photo by Mal Taam

   Kerber, a 30-year-old left-hander from Germany, and Ostapenko, 21, will meet for the first time in a matchup of Grand Slam champions.
   Kerber has reached three Grand Slam finals, all in 2016. She defeated Williams to win the Australian Open, beat Karolina Pliskova to capture the U.S. Open and lost to Williams in the title match at Wimbledon. Ostapenko won last year's French Open for her first tour-level title only two days after turning 20.
   In today's men's doubles quarterfinals, Mike Bryan (Stanford 1997-98) won, but Ben McLachlan (Cal, 2011-14) lost.
   Americans Bryan and Jack Sock, the highest remaining seeds at No. 7, beat unseeded Divij Sharan of India and Artem Sitak, a Russia native who plays for New Zealand, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-4.
   Bryan, 40, has won three Wimbledon men's doubles crowns (2006, 2011 and 2013). All have come with his twin Bob Bryan, who's sidelined with a hip injury. Sock won Wimbledon with Vasek Pospisil of Canada in 2014.
   No. 14 seeds McLachlan, a New Zealand native who plays for his mother's native Japan, and Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany fell to Frederik Nielsen of Denmark and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).
   In 2012, Nielsen and Jonathan Marray of Great Britain became the only wild cards to win the Wimbledon men's doubles title. Nielsen also captured the 2015 Tiburon and Fairfield Challenger titles in Northern California with Johan Brunstrom of Sweden.
  Salisbury and countryman Brydan Klein won the doubles crown in Stockton last fall.
  In the second round of girls singles today, 16-year-old Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area lost to Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 17, of Italy 7-5, 6-4.
  ESPN and ESPN2 will televise Wednesday's men's quarterfinals beginning at 5 a.m. California time. Tennis Channel will recap the matches starting at 1 p.m. Here is the order of play.