Olympic preview on court at Bank of the West

With 22 Olympians in the field, annual tennis tournament at Stanford could offer a sneak preview of Beijing gold-medal match
 
Two women will be on the court in Beijing on August 16, playing for the gold medal of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Chances are the two will know each other. Another likely scenario is that the Olympic champion will be playing at Stanford next week.
 
A total of 22 Olympians will be participating in the 38th annual Bank of the West Classic, the longest-running women's-only pro tennis tournament in the world. Three of them will be in the qualifying tournament that begins Saturday at 10 a.m. and is open to the public at no cost. Two others will be playing doubles only.
 
The main draw begins Monday at 11 a.m. at Stanford's Taube Tennis Center. The championship match will be July 20 at 1 p.m., which perhaps will serve as a preview to the Summer Games.
 
Tennis was dropped as an Olympic sport following the 1924 Games, but reinstated in 1988 for the Seoul Olympics. Among the gold medalists are Lindsay Davenport and Serena Williams.
 
Davenport won the Olympic gold medal in singles at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Williams teamed with her sister, Venus, to claim the doubles gold at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. Both Davenport and Serena Williams are scheduled to compete in Beijing.
 
So, for those who can't make it to China, Bank of the West tickets are less expensive and easier to find than Olympic tickets and there's no additional airfare. Plus there's more diversity in the tennis tournament than anywhere outside of Beijing. Olympians from Argentina to Zimbabwe are represented.
 
Williams, who has pulled out of the Bank of the West three times due to injuries, is still scheduled to make her first appearance at Stanford. She'll likely be the top seed when the draw is announced Friday. Williams is 47-2 lifetime against players ranked outside the Top 100.
 
"There's a lot of depth in women's tennis," Williams said. "Everyone is playing so well. You can't underestimate anyone, whether it's the first round or the finals. You have to play everyone with that same tenacity."
 
Williams, who reached her fourth final of the season at Wimbledon last week, passed $20 million in earnings for her career with the successful weekend; she also won the doubles title with Venus.
 
The world's fifth-ranked women's player and former No. 1, Williams has won 31 of her 35 matches this year and is 386-81 overall.
 
Former world No. 1 Davenport, ranked 23rd, has won 22 of 26 matches this season and is 751-193 lifetime. She missed nearly a year on tour while becoming a first-time mother, returning in late 2007. Her 55 career tournament titles ranks seventh (with Virginia Wade) on the all-time list.
 
Davenport has been rehabbing a knee injury, but still is scheduled to make her return to Stanford where she was won three times. Her last victory came in 2004.
 
Current No. 1 doubles player Liezel Huber, born in South Africa and currently a Houston resident, also will be at Bank of the West and in Beijing, playing doubles with Davenport.
 
The three Olympians scheduled to compete in the qualifying draw include Poland's Marta Domachowska (No. 57), Belarus' Tatiana Poutchek (No. 160) and Australia's Samantha Stosur (No. 104).
 
In the main draw, world No. 41 Olga Govortsova will also represent Belarus, while 11th-ranked Vera Zvonareva and 54th-ranked Elena Vesnina will play for Russia. Sixth-ranked Elena Dementieva of Russia withdrew from the tournament on Wednesday.
 
"I think that I am improving now because I play a lot of matches regularly, every day against good players," Govortsova said. "Last year, I did not really do very well but now I have beaten some good players and have confidence."
 
Other Bank of the West Classic main draw entries scheduled to compete at the Olympics include Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova (ranked No. 12) and Dominika Cibulkova No. 32), Switzerland's Patty Schnyder (No. 13), Zimbabwe's Cara Black (No.1 doubles with Huber), Israel's Shahar Peer (No. 25), Italy's Francesca Schiavone (No. 19), Austria's Sybille Bammer (No. 29), India's Sania Mirza (No. 33), Japan's Ai Sugiyama (No. 39), China's Li Na (No. 46), Argentina's Gisela Dulko (No. 34), Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova (No. 61), and the Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko (No. 46).
 
"I believe in realistic goals. I am a very practical person," Mirza said. "That is why I have always said the top-20 is my goal. I have had some really good wins here."
 
That's Olympians from 17 different countries in one venue. Where does that happen outside of China this year?
 
Throw in some sight-seeing around the pool and there's a virtual glut of Olympians.
 
"Every match is different," Hantuchova said. "You have to be prepared and expect it could be a tough match."
 
There's much more activity around the tennis venue though, with all kinds of booths, eateries and entertainment available.
 
There's also world class tennis, with 19 of the top 50 players in the world entered, including Russia's Anna Chakvetadze, who returns to defend her Classic title.
 
"Moving higher up in the rankings means a lot," the eighth-ranked Chakvetadze said. "I have to work harder to stay there and be more consistent. It is my goal to better at Grand Slam events."
 
France's Marion Bartoli (No. 15), Belarus' Victoria Azarenka (a career-high 16th), Russia's Nadia Petrova (No. 17) and Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova (No. 44) also will be on hand.
 
Stosur, who has to qualify because she missed most of the past year recovering from a viral illness, won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon with former Stanford great Bob Bryan, also the top-ranked player in double with his twin brother Mike Bryan, also a Stanford product.
 
Bryan and Stosur beat Bryan and Katharina Srebotnik, 7-5, 6-4, in the finals.
 
Bob Bryan also won the mixed doubles title at the French Open with Azarenka.
 
A Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event, the Bank of the West Classic features a 28-player singles draw as well as a 16-team doubles draw. The event is owned and operated by IMG and serves as the opening women's event of the Olympus US Open Series.
 
Tickets for the event, which will be held through July 20, can be purchased by calling the box office at 866-WTA-TIXS (866-982-8497) or by logging on to www.BankoftheWestClassic.com.
 
Single-session tickets for the tournament's opening round start at just $23. Full-week packages, which include tickets to all 13 sessions, are also available and start at only $525. Those who purchase a box of four full week packages will also receive four passes to the exclusive VIP Plaza Club, four invitations to the Meet the Players Party and two VIP parking passes.

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