By CURRAN McCAULEY
STANFORD, CALIF. – Serena Williams was nowhere to be found during Saturday’s semifinal round at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Center. The number-one ranked women’s tennis player in the world withdrew from the tournament due to nagging injuries as she prepares to compete at the US Open later this month, with a chance to culminate an outstanding run of success by sweeping the Grand Slam tournaments.
Despite the lack of Williams’s presence, a three time winner of the WTA tour event, the prestigious classic still drew large crowds to the shining Stanford campus, as tennis fanatics and casuals alike enjoyed a late-summer outing with some of the best talent in the tennis world. The world’s longest running female tennis tournament has traditionally been a proving ground for some of the world’s greatest champions, including Lindsay Davenport and Kim Clijsters.
A mix of Bank of the West Classic veterans such as 44-year old qualifier Kimiko Date-Krumm and rising stars on the tour such as Madison Keys and CiCi Bellis highlighted this year’s field that was characterized by upset after upset in the early days of the main draw.
In a crowd-pleasing first semifinal, the No. 4 overall seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, 23 took down American Vavara Lepchenko, 29 by a score of 6-2, 7-5. Pliskova, who will earn a top-ten ranking for the first time in her career when the WTA rankings are released on Monday, initially seemed destined to breeze past Lepchenko, a native of Uzbekistan who fled the country and sought asylum in the United States, as the first set went the way of the 11th-ranked player in the world. Lepchenko put up a fight in the second set, however, falling behind 4-2 before rattling off three straight games to go ahead 5-4. With the Stanford crowd fully behind Lepchenko, Pliskova proved why she was worthy to be amongst the game’s elite with a display full of nifty shots and impressive range, defending any attempt at a comeback from the Lepchenko, who was thwarted in her bid to become the first unseeded finalist at Stanford since CoCo Vandeweghe in 2012.
“I’m feeling great now. I’ve won three matches here and haven’t lost a set. It couldn’t be a better start to the hard-court season, especially in advance of the US Open. It doesn’t matter how the finals goes, I’m going to have four great matches,” said Pliskova in her post-match press conference.
That fourth match was determined by the results of a 55-minute triumph in the evening session. The second semifinal pitted the fifth-overall seeded Angelique Kerber, a Polish-born German who fell in the final to Williams last year, against Ukranian Elina Svitolina, the eighth seed in the tournament at just 20 years old and making her Stanford debut. The younger Svitolina struggled to find a rhythm in the match, as Kerber rolled to a 6-3, 6-1 victory, converting on all six of her break points and playing exceptionally sound defense to the wonderment of the Stanford crowd. Svitolina was able to take a 2-1 lead early in set one but never led the remainder of the match as Kerber was able to take her game to another level, sending Svitolina into fits, gliding across the court to make return after return and essentially sealing the match with a commanding 3-0 lead in set two buoyed by two service breaks.
“Of course my game is good defense, but I am always trying to find the middle in the game. It’s going to be a tough final. I will try to enjoy it and I’m looking forward to playing the final tomorrow.”, said Kerber after her quick dispatching of Svitolina.
The semifinal results now set up a tantalizing finals match-up between Pliskova and Kerber, the fourth and fifth seeded players overall. The two have faced off five times before with Pliskova holding a 3-2 advantage all time. The contest will begin at 2:00 pm and will be televised on ESPN2. Serena Williams will not get to defend her title, but a pair of rising stars will do battle with an eye on the US Open. Sounds like a winning scenario down on “The Farm”.
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