Birthday girl Victoria Azarenka got two presents at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium this past weekend. One was a mis-hit tennis ball in the rear end from doubles partner Maria Kirilenko, part of a dismal semifinal performance on Saturday that knocked the pair out of the tournament.
The other was a check for $107,000, her prize for winning the singles final a day later.
The 21-year-old Belarusian’s 6-4, 6-1 victory over Maria Sharapova put her name alongside numerous tennis legends who have won the tournament — greats including Venus Williams, Chris Evert and Billie Jean King, one of the event’s founders.
“This was the first tournament of the year in 1971, which was the first year we really had a series of tournaments for women in professional tennis,” King said at a pre-match ceremony.
At first, promoting the event was difficult — even legends such as King had to sell tickets and stop cars on the street — but the founders had a clear goal.
“We wanted any little girl who wanted to in the world, if she had the ability, to be able to make a living as a professional athlete and an entertainer to take tennis to people around the globe,” she said.
The Bank of the West Classic has exemplified that dream: with 40 years of tennis under its belt, it is the longest-running women’s professional tennis tournament in existence, and the first of 10 stops on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour before the U.S. Open.
Stanford has hosted the Bank of the West Classic since 1997, and the tournament has a distinct Cardinal presence in the form of legendary coach and tennis director Dick Gould, who participated in the pre-match and award ceremonies. Some fans showed up to back Cardinal players Hilary Barte and Nicole Gibbs early on, but Gibbs fell in qualifying and Barte lost in the first round.
After their departures, Sharapova became the fan favorite in the singles competition, yet she fell short in the final after failing to match Azarenka’s consistent return game and serve. A fourth career singles title and a giant stuffed bear presented with the trophy were not enough to satisfy Azarenka’s birthday wishes, however.
“I want a cake, I want some ice cream, something besides salmon,” she said.
Even though her birthday diet had been limited to health food, Azarenka considered the tournament a very positive experience, coming back from injury as an eighth seed and beating fifth-seeded Sharapova. Azarenka noted that the venue was well prepared.
“They do this tournament on a college campus,” she said. “It’s just amazing to see how well they organize it.”
Despite the fact that Taube hosts champions on a regular basis — Stanford’s women’s tennis teams have won 17 national titles in the years since 1978 — the tournament brought prestigious players of a different order, including former World No. 1 player Lindsay Davenport.
Davenport came out of a two-year retirement to play doubles in the tournament alongside Liezel Huber as wild cards, and the pair went on to win the title 7-5, 6-7 (8), [10-8] over Yung-Jan Chan and Jie Zheng on Sunday. The victory gave Davenport a record sixth doubles title (and ninth title overall) at the event.
“I’m so excited and so happy that I came here,” she said. “This is always one of my favorite tournaments.”
“It’s in its 40th year, it’s outrageous. It’s been such a great tournament,” she added.
Many in the audience seemed to share that sentiment, not just because of the high quality professional tennis that the Bank of the West Classic brought to Stanford but also for the family-friendly environment it created. Players were routinely available for autographs, and the tournament’s bear mascot roamed around the court after matches. When Davenport and Huber’s semifinal opponents retired, the pair rallied with two young girls, who used their tennis abilities to entertain the crowd.
Just as Billie Jean King had hoped for.