By Jeremy Harness

STANFORD – The Bank of the West Classic got under way on Monday, minus the main attraction.

Serena Williams, who won this tournament for a third time last year, was forced to take herself out of this year’s event due to a bad left elbow, which she injured while practicing during the Swedish Open.

However, this could prove to be the perfect opportunity for a star in the making such as Madison Keys, who is ranked No. 18 by the WTA at press time. The 20-year-old certainly put the field on notice Monday night by overpowering Aleksandra Krunic in straight sets by a 6-3 and 6-0 count.

Keys was simply too fast and too strong for the Serbian throughout the match, and she appeared to only grow stronger as the match went along. To illustrate her dominance, Keys won 24 of her 26 first serves to go along with six aces to only one for Krunic.

“Once I got ahead, I just tried to keep the pressure on her,” said Keys, who made it to the quarterfinal round at Wimbledon as well as a semifinals at the Australian Open earlier in the season. “My first serve, overall, has been working for me.

“It hasn’t been the most consistent year, but I would say it has been the best year.”

When you also factor in that keys also broke Krunic’s serve four times, you’ve got a match that lasted less than an hour.

Andrea Petkovic, who is directly in front of Keys in the WTA rankings at No. 17, came back to down fellow German Carina Witthoeft in three sets in one of the afternoon matches.

The 27-year-old Petkovic dropped the first set to Witthoeft, 7-5, but she responded in a huge way with a dominant 6-1 second set before closing out the 20-year-old, 6-3, in the final set to move on to the quarterfinal singles round.

“I just played really bad (in the first set),” said Petkovic, who currently does not have a coach but who has reached out to German tennis legends Steffi Graf – to no avail, as Petkovic said that Graf has no desire to travel at all at this point – as well as Boris Becker, to take on a sort of a mentor role in her career. “I was just sort of relying on my (physical) stability, but I never felt like I was on top of my game.”

Petkovic made it all the way to the semifinal round of last year’s tournament before falling to Serena Williams in straight sets. However, she won’t have the chance for redemption this time around due to defending champion Williams dropping out.

To add a little local flavor to the tournament, former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs also moved on to the quarterfinals after beating Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, 6-4 and 7-5, to win her third match of the season.

To get the upper hand, the 22-year-old Gibbs won 78 percent of her first serves during the match, including winning 82 percent in the second set, which proved to be crucial down the stretch.