[新聞] New faces in Bank of West Many new faces in Bank of West
With few marquee names, tourney gives others chance to shine
By Amanda Pazornik, STAFF WRITER
— STANFORD —
This year's French Open doubles finalist Daniela Hantuchova revealed the
first-round matchups for the 2006 Bank of the West Tennis Classic at the
annual draw ceremony Friday.
The informal gathering marked the beginning of the weeklong tournament at
Stanford's Taube Family Tennis Center.
The 36th annual Bank of the West Classic is the first stop of the U.S. Open
series and is the longest running women-only professional tournament world-wide.
A bronzed and fairly relaxed Hantuchova flipped over tile after tile, revealing
each player's first-round opponent, except for the top four seeds who each
received an automatic bye into the second round.
Hantuchova had to laugh when she realized she was seeded fifth in the
tournament and would have to face a qualifier in her first-round match.
"I think it's a very tough draw," Hantuchova said. "It shows again how
popular this tournament is. Hopefully, I'll get as far as possible. Everyone's
going to be very tough."
Tournament director Adam Barrett posted 24 names on the draw, leaving four
spots open for qualifiers who will have to play their way into the main draw
today, Sunday and Monday.
Players with first-round matches against qualifiers must wait until Monday to
learn their opponents.
Hantuchova didn't seem daunted by her situation and cited previous experiences
in the U.S. Open series as the reason why.
"(Playing the series) is a great thing," she said. "I really enjoyed it. I
played in quite a few of the summer tournaments, like five or six. It really
gave me the confidence coming into the U.S. Open."
This tournament draw bears little resemblance to one you would expect to see
at the U.S. Open or other Grand Slams.
Kim Clijsters, the tournament's top seed, and Patty Schnyder, the No.2 seed,
are the only players in the draw currently ranked in the world's top 10,
leaving tons of room for the game's rising stars.
Many players have climbed the WTA rankings throughout the year like the No. 3
and 4 seeds Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic and Anna-Lena Groenefeld
from Germany.
Others are veterans such as Americans Jill Craybas and Chanda Rubin, who will
meet in first-round action either Monday or Tuesday.
But most of the spots are taken by talented players new to the professional
circuit, like Amber Liu, a two-time NCAA singles champion and recent Stanford
graduate.
"It's an interesting draw," Barrett said. "There's a lot of new names, and
there's a lot of young names. If you watch tennis, some of your best matches
don't always involve the same four or five girls that everybody wants to talk
about. There's a lot of young girls in this draw who are starting to make a
move and really are a threat to the top 10 and top 15."
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