The 2014 Bank of the West Classic final in Stanford will be contested between Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber at 2pm local time in Stanford (10pm UK time).  Serena was first into the final with a 7-5 6-0 victory over Andrea Petkovic.  The first set was high quality with Serena getting the all important break in a lengthy final game where Petko had saved four set points.  Petkovic played some really good tennis in the first set.  It was the most aggressive I had ever seen play and she was reasonably consistent as well, going toe-to-toe with the world number one.  Her serve has improved and she managed to get a high percentage of first serves in to stay in the set.  Unfortunately she just faltered in the final game of the first set and then the defences opened as Serena powered her way into the third Stanford final.

In the second semi-final, Kerber saved a match point to defeat Varvara Lepchenko in three sets, 4-6 7-6(4) 6-2 in two hours and 39 minutes.  Lepchenko led 6-4 *5-3 and had the ascendancy in the second set tiebreak, but nerves got the better of her.  These are positive signs for Kerber though, who was struggling in three setters at the beginning of the year.  She’s completely turned that around and has now won seven of her last eight three set matches.  Kerber is into her fourth final, but she is yet to win a title in 2014…

Serena leads the H2H with Kerber 4-1; Kerber’s lone win came in Cincy in 2012.  Serena was completely out-of-sorts, but Kerber held her nerve tremendously well in that match.  Since then, Serena has beaten Kerber three times in straight sets and Kerber hasn’t won more than four games in any of the sets played.  Serena looked back to her best against Petkovic and i’m taking all the credit.  It’s a given that whenever I predict against her in my original predictions, she comes good 😉 This is a really tough turnaround for Kerber having played the late night match and been on court for over two and a half hours.  She struggled with the turnaround in her last tournament at Wimbledon when she was forced to take to the court for her quarter-final with Eugenie Bouchard less than 24 hours after an epic win over Maria Sharapova.  Advantage Serena…

Prediction: S.Williams d Kerber in 2 sets