BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC – Serena Williams Wins

Written by: Staff on 16th July 2012

BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC - Serena Williams Wins

epa03299554 Serena Williams of the US celebrates her victory over Agnieszka Radwanska following her women's final match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 07 July 2012. EPA/GERRY PENNY |

BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC

Stanford, CA, USA

July 9-15, 2012

$740,000/Premier

Hard/Outdoors

Results – Sunday, July 15, 2012

Singles – Final

(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. (LL) Coco Vandeweghe (USA) 75 63

Doubles – Final

Erakovic/Watson (NZL/GBR) d. (1) Gajdosova/King (AUS/USA) 75 76(7)

Final Facts

– In defending her Stanford title, Williams nets her 43rd career title, tying her with sister Venus for first among active players and with Venus, Martina Hingis and Justine Henin for 10th-most of the Open Era.

– Williams has now won 28 of her last 29 matches, her only loss since the start of April coming in the first round of the French Open to Virginie Razzano.

– Williams did not lose a set en route to the title, her fourth of 2012 – tied with this week’s champ in Palermo, Sara Errani, and Victoria Azarenka for most this season.

– Vandeweghe was the first lucky loser to reach a WTA final since Melinda Czink did it at Canberra in January 2005.

– Vandeweghe, who had never been beyond a quarterfinal before this week, is projected to surpass her career-high of No.89 on the new rankings.

– Doubles champs Erakovic and Watson were teaming up for the first time this week.

– Stanford was Erakovic’s sixth WTA doubles title and Watson’s first WTA title of any kind.

Final Quotes

Serena Williams: “I think I played well enough to win today. I think I can do a lot better, but there are a lot of positives from today. I was fighting out there. I wanted it. ”

“I think Coco played really well today. She has a really strong, solid game.”

“I’ve never felt this fit, this strong, this happy to play – and I think I can be even better. I want to sustain this momentum and build on what I did at Wimbledon. I’m going to get back on the grass now for the Olympics – I’m not sure when I’m heading back to London, but I’ll do it as soon as I can.”

Coco Vandeweghe: “The thing that impressed me the most about Serena was just how great of a person she is, as far as all the nice things she said about me at the ceremony, and the things she said afterwards. To have someone you grew up watching say those things to you, it’s just a really nice feeling. ”

“There’s a lot of things going through my mind right now – happiness I was in the final and disappointment I lost today – but I’m just going to put all that on the backburner for now and start focusing on my next tournament in San Diego.”

Heather Watson: “This is my first WTA title so I’m really happy right now! It’s such a nice feeling getting to the end of the week and being the last ones here. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy match today – they’re both great players and we knew we would really have to win it, they weren’t going to give it to us.”

Topics: Bank Of The West Classic, Coco Vandeweghe, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis, Serena Williams, Venus Williams