The WTA gets back into action in the U.S. with two events on the west coast. This week, it’s the Bank of the West tournament in Stanford while next week is the East West Bank Classic down in Carson (L.A.).
Stanford will see both Williams sisters in action along with Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki while East West sees the return of world “number one” (I put that in quotes on purpose) Dinara Safina, French Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Victoria Azarenka among others.
Also playing in both events is Maria Sharapova who is looking to return to the top tier of the game despite having mixed results the last few months. How she plays these next few weeks will say a lot about how healthy she is and what her chances are at the Open.
Safina just won the event at Slovenia this week. The fact that she plays at such small events is one of the reasons she continues to be ranked “number one” despite her inability to win a Slam this year. Consistency is to be admired, but as I said in an earlier post, she will need to win the Open to prove her top ranking.
Adjusting the Net 