Williams, who has claimed two titles and notched five runner-up finishes in 11 previous tournament appearances, cruised past qualifier Paula Kania 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday night in the main draw of the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Pounding home seven aces while winning all nine of her service games, Williams was competing in her first event since a three-set loss to Petra Kvitova in the third round at Wimbledon last month. Williams raced out to a 4-1 lead in both sets against Kania, who was making her tournament debut after surviving two rounds of qualifying over the weekend. Of the three seeded players in action on Tuesday, only No. 5 Ana Ivanovic emerged, coming away with a 7-6 (2), 6-1 victory over Sabine Lisicki in what was billed to be one of the most competitive first-round contests. Trailing 6-5 in the first set, Ivanovic won back-to-back games against Lisicki, who produced the fastest recorded serve in WTA history with a 131 mph offering in the 11th game of the first set. Defending champion and No. 6 seed Dominika Cibulkova was upset 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 by Garbine Muguruza while No. 7 seed Carla Suarez Navarro suffered a 6-3, 7-5 setback against Monica Puig.
Qualifier Carol Zhao registered her first career WTA main draw victory, punching her ticket to the second round when Yanina Wickmayer retired due to a viral illness one game into the second set. It may not have mattered though against the sophomore All-American from Stanford, as Zhao had taken the first set 6-2 and led 1-0 before Wickmayer elected to retire.
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| DANIELA HANTUCHOVA |
Daniela Hantuchova put away Paula Ormaechea 6-3, 6-4 in the nightcap. In doubles play, the No. 2-seeded duo of Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova needed only 39 minutes to defeat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 6-0.
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