Stanford, CA – Eighth seed Marina Erakovic and ninth seed Sorana Cirstea both advanced in straight sets in the opening round Tuesday at the $740,000 Bank of the West Classic tennis event.
Erakovic, of New Zealand, zipped past Slovak Jana Juricova 6-2, 6-2, while Romania's Cirstea downed American Vania King 7-5, 6-4 on the hardcourts at Stanford's Taube Family Tennis Stadium
American teenager Nicole Gibbs advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Thai qualifier Noppawan Lertcheewakarn. The 19-year-old Gibbs, who entered the draw as a wild card this week, will face Wimbledon champion Serena Williams in her next outing.
Also, Japanese qualifier Erika Sema erased American lucky-loser Alexa Glatch 6-2, 6-3, Urszula Radwanska of Poland bested Greece's Eleni Daniilidou 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, and American wild card Mallory Burdette outlasted England's Anne Keothavong 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
China's lucky-loser Zheng Saisai advanced to the second round after Ayumi Morita of Japan retired in the first set because of a lower back injury while trailing 4-2.
This week's top seed is the aforementioned Williams, who beat Marion Bartoli, this week's second seed, in last year's Stanford finale. Bartoli titled here in 2009 and was also a runner-up in 2008.
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