Soledad Esperon of Argentina, seeded fourth in the Ballantrae Challenger, defeated Birmingham’s Christy Striplin 6-1, 6-2 in the first match Thursday at the Pelham Racquet Club. Other top seeds also advanced as tournament top seed Aleksandra Wozniak from Canada defeated Tammy Encina of the USA 6-3, 6-0. Second seed Kristina Czafikova from Slovakia won 6-2, 6-2 over Antonia Matic of Germany. Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay, the third seed and 2000 French Open semi finalist, also reached the quarterfinals with a straight set win over Tetiana Luzhanska of Ukraine, 6-4, 6-3.

Other Singles Results:

Ansley Cargill, USA def. Heidi El Tabakh, Canada 7-5, 6-0

Romana Tedjakusuma, Indonesia def. Andrea Benetiz, Argentina 6-3, 2-6, 6-0

Petra Rampre, Slovakia def. Sarah Taylor, USA 6-2, 6-2

Sofia Melikishvili, Georgia def. Jamie Hampton, USA 6-0, 6-2

Doubles Results:

(1)   Leanne Baker, New Zealand & Francesca Lubiana, Italy def.

Rosanna De Los Rios, Raraguay & Jewel Peterson, USA  6-3, 6-1

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA & Kristen Schlukebir, USA def.

(3) Antonia Matic, Germany & Romana Tedjakusuma, Indonesia  6-1, 6-0

Friday Match Schedule

11:00 – Kristina Czafikova (2) vs. Sofia Melikishvili

12:00 – Aleksandra Wozniak (1) vs. Ansley Cargill

12:30 – Rossana De Los Rios (3) vs. Romana Tedjakusuma

followed by:

Pillay / Roland vs. Czafikova / Luzhanska

El Tabakh / Wozniak vs. Barnikow / Zalameda

4:00 (1) Baker / Lubiani vs. Kops-Jones / Schlukebir

6:00 Soledad Esperon (4) vs. Petre Rampre