Stanford 2012 Finals Live Stream: Serena Williams vs Coco Vandeweghe

It will be a battle between a veteran American tennis star and an up-and-coming American player who is 10 years younger and is playing in her first ever WTA finals when top-seeded Serena Williams plays lucky loser Coco Vandeweghe in the 2012 BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC tennis tournament in Stanford, California. The premier level tournament will have it's championship match today Sunday, July 15, 2012 at 1pm local time. The doubles final will follow after the completion of the singles final. Watch the Stanford 2012 finals live online streaming here for non-US viewers. For fans within the United States, online live streaming links are available here.

Vandeweghe, who lost in the last round of qualifying, was allowed in the main draw along with two other lucky loses after three players including no. 7-seed Petra Martic withdrew before the tournament started due to injuries. The young American then went on a tear beating Melinda Czink in the first round, no. 4-seed Jelena Jankovic in the second round, Urszula Radwanska in the semifinals, and finally downing no. 5-seed Yanina Wickmayer 62 36 62 to reach her first ever WTA final.

Vandeweghe is currently ranked no. 120 but her finals appearance guarantees her a jump to at least the top 80 in the rankings which will allow her to gain outright entry into the US Open main draw starting in the last week of August. She also is the first lucky loser to reach the final of a tournament after the same achievement was done by Czink, Vandeweghe's first round opponent, at Canberra in 2005.

In the night match, top seeded and world no. 4 Serena Williams was just too powerful for Romanian no. 9-seed Sorana Cirstea. Their semifinal match was done in an hour with Serena the 61 62 victor. Serena is playing in Stanford after winning her 5th Wimbledon title and 14th Grand Slam last weekend. She is the defending champion and has dominated her opponents losing just 10 games in three matches on her way to the final. She had a first round bye, defeated American wildcard Nicole Gibbs in the second round, beat no. 6-seed Chanelle Scheepers in the quarterfinals before her semi-final against Cirstea. She is aiming to win her fourth title of the year after lifting trophies in Charleston, Madrid and Wimbledon.

Williams has now won 27 of her last 28 matches and is aiming to match the 43 WTA titles her older sister currently have, which is the most amongst active players. Williams and Vandeweghe will be playing each other for the first time and Vandeweghe doesn't have a single top 5 win to her name. The winner takes home the $96,000 top prize money earnings and 470 ranking points. The runner-up wins $53,000 and 320 ranking points.

Watch the 2012 Bank of the West Classic singles finals in Stanford through live online video streaming featuring Serena Williams vs Coco Vandeweghe.

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Tennis Olympics 2012 - Who will win in London?

It's a once-in-four-years experience for tennis players in the world's greatest sporting event - the Olympics. For the 2012 London Olympics, the top players in both the ATP and WTA professional tours will be in attendance led by current world no. 1 players Roger Federer and Victoria Azarenka. The Olympic tennis tournament will be held at the grass courts of the All England Club in Wimbledon, England from 28 July to 5 August 2012. The men's gold medalist in singles will be awarded 750 ranking points while the women's gold medalist will be given 685 ranking points. In perspective, these ranking points are more than what a Grand Slam quarter-finalist would receive but less than that of a Grand Slam semi-finalist.

Who are the favorites to win in London? For the men's singles tournament - current Wimbledon champion and world no. 1 Federer, 2008 Olympic gold medalist Rafael Nadal, Australian and US Open champion Novak Djokovic and hometown favorite and 2012 Wimbledon finalist Andy Murray are expected to contend for the gold medal. In women's singles, the prohibitive champion is 2012 Wimbledon titlist Serena Williams. Top ranked Azarenka - the reigning Australian Open champion, French Open champion Maria Sharapova, US Open champion Samantha Stosur, world no. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska and 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova are expected to challenge Williams for the gold medal.

Don't forget to return in two-weeks time as this blog will be covering the 2012 London Olympics tennis events. Five gold medal events are going to be contested - the men's singles, men's doubles, women's singles, women's doubles and the mixed doubles, a new event being played for the first time in 2012.

Related Links: Women's Singles Entry List | Men's Singles Entry List | Women's Doubles Entry List | Men's Doubles Entry List | Mixed Doubles Entry List | Watch Tennis Olympics 2012 Live Streaming | 2012 London Olympics - Tennis TV Schedule

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Tennis Olympics 2012 - Women's Singles Entry List

Thirty four countries will be represented at the London Olympics 2012 women's singles tennis tournament that starts on July 28. 56 women tennis players gained direct entry into the draw based on their world rankings as of 11 June 2012, after the 2012 French Open. 8 other players were given wildcard entries - 6 ITF final qualification places and 2 tripartite commission invitation places. 2008 Olympic gold medalist in singles Elena Dementieva will not be competing as she resigned from tennis in 2012.

Russia swept all three women's singles medals in 2008 but only Vera Zvonareva is returning for the London Olympics. Last Olympics' silver medalist, former world no. 1 Dinara Safina doesn't have a world ranking due to inactivity - she ended 2011 ranked no. 129 in the world. All four current Grand Slam champions - Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, and Samantha Stosur - will be in attendance along with world no. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska. The venue for the Olympic women's tennis tournament is at the All England Club where the yearly Wimbledon grand slam championship takes place.

2012 London Olympics: Women's Tennis singles entry list

- Australia: Samantha Stosur
- Belarus: Victoria Azarenka
- Belgium: Yanina Wickmayer, Kim Clijsters
- Bulgaria: Tsvetana Pironkova
- Canada: Aleksandra Wozniak
- China, P.R.: Li Na, Peng Shuai, Zheng Jie
- Chinese Taipei: Hsieh Su-Wei
- Croatia: Petra Martic
- Czech Republic: Petra Kvitova, Lucie Safarova, Petra Cetkovska, Klara Zakopalova
- Denmark: Caroline Wozniacki
- Estonia: Kaia Kanepi
- France: Alize Cornet (*)
- Georgia: Anna Tatishvili (*)
- Germany: Angelique Kerber, Sabine Lisicki, Andrea Petkovic, Julia Goerges
- Great Britain: Anne Keothavong (*), Elena Baltacha (*)
- Hungary: Agnes Szavay
- Israel: Shahar Peer
- Italy: Sara Errani, Flavia Pennetta, Roberta Vinci, Francesca Schiavone
- Kazakhstan: Galina Voskoboeva, Yaroslava Shvedova
- Liechtenstein: Stephanie Vogt (#)
- New Zealand: Marina Erakovic
- Paraguay: Veronica Cepede Royg (#)
- Poland: Agnieszka Radwanska, Urszula Radwanska
- Romania: Monica Niculescu, Simona Halep, Sorana Cirstea, Irina-Camelia Begu
- Russia: Maria Sharapova, Vera Zvonareva, Maria Kirilenko, Nadia Petrova
- Serbia: Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic
- Slovak Republic: Dominika Cibulkova, Daniela Hantuchova
- Slovenia: Polona Hercog
- Spain: Anabel Medina Garrigues, Carla Suarez Navarro, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Silvia Soler-Espinosa
- Sweden: Sofia Arvidsson
- Switzerland: Timea Bacsinszky
- Tunisia: Ons Jabeur (*)
- Ukraine: Alona Bondarenko, Kateryna Bondarenko (*)
- USA: Serena Williams, Christina McHale, Venus Williams, Varvara Lepchenko

(*) ITF Place
(#) Tripartite Commission Invitation Place

The London Olympics 2012 women's tennis singles entry list is taken from the International Tennis Federation website.

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Watch WTA Stanford Tennis 2012 Live Online Stream

After three weeks on grass, the WTA tour shifts to the hard court season in preparation for the year's last Grand Slam in Flushing Meadows, New York this coming September. The first tournament on the North American summer calendar is the Bank of the West Classic held in STANFORD, USA from JULY 9 - 15, 2012. The tournament is a WTA premier-level and for 2012, it has attracted four of the world's top 20 players. The surface is hard courts and the tournament director is Kim Hall Uliasz. The total 8prize money for the tournament is $740,000. TennisTv.com will start broadcasting tennis matches starting July 13 to July 15. Watch WTA Stanford tennis matches live online here.

Fresh from winning her 7th Wimbledon title, American tennis star and defending Stanford champion Serena Williams is the top-seeded player and top attraction for the 2012 Bank of the West Classic. The world no. 4 Serena used this tournament last year as part of her comeback after almost a year away from tennis. Ranked no. 169 last year, she rampaged through the draw, defeating then world no. 5 and no. 2-seed Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals en route to her first tournament win in 2011.

In this year's draw, Serena is joined by world no. 10 Marion Bartoli who will be this year's no. 2 seed. Bartoli finished runner-up to Serena in 2011 and has a good history in this tournament. She reached the finals in two other previous occasions winning in 2009 and finishing runner-up in 2008. Third-seeded Dominika Cibulkova - a semifinalist in Stanford last year - and fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic will both be seeking to shake off first round losses at Wimbledon.

2012 BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC: Order Of Play
Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Stadium (from 11.00hrs)
1. Michelle Larcher de Brito vs. Chanelle Scheepers
2. Yanina Wickmayer vs. Heather Watson
3. Serena Williams vs. Nicole Gibbs (NB 15.00hrs)
4. Erakovic/Watson vs. Kops-Jones/Spears
5. Coco Vandeweghe vs. Jelena Jankovic (NB 20.00hrs)

Court 6 (from 13.30hrs)
1. Chan/Chan vs. Cibulkova/Husarova
2. Gajdosova/King vs. Cirstea/Keothavong (NB 14.30hrs)
3. Burdette/Gibbs vs. Grandin/Uhlirova (NB 17.00hrs; after suitable rest)

2012 BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC: Seeded Players

1. WILLIAMS, Serena
2. BARTOLI, Marion
3. CIBULKOVA, Dominika
4. JANKOVIC, Jelena
5. WICKMAYER, Yanina
6. SCHEEPERS, Chanelle
7. MARTIC, Petra (withdrew)
8. ERAKOVIC, Marina
9. CIRSTEA, Sorana

2012 BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC: Prize Money (Ranking Points)

Winner $96,000 (470)
Finalist $53,000 (320)
Semi-Finalist $28,500 (200)
Quarter-Finalist $15,500 (120)
2nd Round $8,750 (60)
1st Round $4,600 (1)

Watch WTA Stanford Tennis 2012 live online stream through TennisTv.com.

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