TENNIS in DEPTH.

Ivanovic has a tough 1st round match in Stanford.

by on Jul.25, 2010, under Alisa Kleybanova, Ana Ivanovic

Ana Ivanovic has been drawn against Russian world No.26 Alisa Kleybanova in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic, which begins in Stanford on Monday.

It will be the fourth meeting between the pair in women’s tennis – they played once as juniors with Ana winning – and the Russian leads the head-to-head series 3-1. She most recently beat Ana at the French Open in May. On hard courts, the surface in Stanford, the count is one victory each.

Samantha Stosur and Elena Dementieva both earning first-round byes and locking up the top two seeds, respectively.

Stosur appears to be well-positioned in the first quarter of the draw, as she is guaranteed to face a qualifier in her second round matchup. Wildcard entrant Hilary Barte, a three-time All-American in both singles and doubles heading into her senior season at Stanford, will square off against Dominika Cibulkova in another interesting contest.

The second quarter of the draw features two seeded players in No. 4 Marion Bartoli, the defending Bank of the West Classic champion and No. 8 Victoria Azarenka, along with a few other familiar names.

Current World No. 11 Agnieszka Radwanska is seeded No. 3, headlining the top half of the main draw on the opposite side. Sixth-seeded Shahar Peer opposes Daniela Hantuchova in a must-see contest, while Maria Kirilenko battles one of two qualifiers in that section.

After a first-round bye, Dementieva will play the winner of former World No. 1 Dinara Safina and Kimiko Date Krumm. On the opposite side of that quarter is a highly-anticipated matchup between three-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova and 2010 Australian Open semifinalist Jie Zheng.

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