Skip to main content

Gibbs to meet top-seeded Serena at Bank of West

  • Author:
  • Publish date:

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Nicole Gibbs, a junior at Stanford, said she has never played better in her life. Now she gets to play the match of her life.

Gibbs, a wild card, beat Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic on Tuesday. She faces top-seeded and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams in Wednesday's second round.

Gibbs, the NCAA singles and doubles champion in the spring, is coming off a victory in a $50,000 ITF event in Denver.

In other matches, eighth-seeded Marina Erakovic of New Zealand topped Slovakian and 2011 NCAA champion Jana Juricova, 6-2, 6-2; Urszula Radwanska of Poland downed Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; qualifier Erika Sema of Japan defeated American Alexa Glatch, 6-2, 6-3; and Saisai Zheng of China advanced when Japan's Ayumi Morita retired with a lower back injury.