With the addition of Safina, the Bank of the West Classic will now feature four former World No. 1′s including Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Lindsay Davenport.
Overall the tournament will host 13 of the top-30 ranked players in the world.
Safina, a singles finalist at the 2008 French Open, 2009 Australian Open, and 2009 French Open, has won 12-career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles and spent 26 weeks at No. 1 during the 2009 season. This will be Safina’s first visit to the Bank of the West Classic.
Azarenka will be making her second appearance at the Bank of the West Classic. The 20-year-old from Belarus has won three-career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles including the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. She has reached the quarterfinals at three Grand Slam events including the French Open and Wimbledon in 2009 and the Australian Open earlier this year.
The 2010 Bank of the West Classic will feature a 30-player singles draw and 16-team doubles draw. The official tournament draw, and first round match-ups, will be announced on Saturday, July 24.
[...] Dinara Safina is absolutely crushing balls today – but really, should that come as a surprise? What is surprising, or at least interesting – maybe ironic is the best word – is that Zelko Krajan was on the court right next to her. Zelko was keeping an eye on his new player, Dominika Cibulkova, but he did shoot a few glances in Safina’s direction. [...]