Stanford, California Jul 11: U.S. wildcard Nicole Gibbs beat Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic on Tuesday to set up a second-round match against Wimbledon champion Serena Williams.
Gibbs, a junior at Stanford who won NCAA singles and doubles titles 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 beat Slovakia's 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 Zheng Saisai of China advanced when Japan's Ayumi Morita retired with a lower back injury.
