Birmingham, England – Top seed Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium highlighted Wednesday's second-round winners at the $235,000 Aegon Classic, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up.
Flipkens came from behind to beat Croatian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 at Edgbaston Priory Club.
Flipkens' third-round opponent on Thursday will be 16th-seeded Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova, who outlasted Frenchwoman Mathilde Johansson 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 on Day 3. Rybarikova was the 2009 Birmingham champ.
New Zealand's Marina Erakovic upended one of last week's Wimbledon doubles titlists and this week's second seed, Ekaterina Makarova, 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-0, while third-seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea doused Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 6-4, and fifth-seeded German Sabine Lisicki plowed through Czech Kristyna Pliskova 6-4, 6-2. Lisicki titled here in 2011.
In other second-round play involving top-10 seeds, Slovakian veteran Daniela Hantuchova handled No. 7 Laura Robson of Britain 6-3, 6-4 and Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni upended No. 9 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-4, 6-0. Wickmayer was a Birmingham runner-up in 2008, while Hantuchova was the Birmingham bridesmaid in 2011.
Also on Wednesday, 12th-seeded Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic topped British wild card Johanna Konta 6-4, 6-1; 13th-seeded Serb Bojana Jovanovski overcame Czech Andrea Hlavackova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; Russian qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva knocked out 14th-seeded Brit Heather Watson 6-4, 6-3; 15th-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone downed Ukrainian qualifier Nadiya Kichenok 7-6 (7-4), 6-2; and American Maria Sanchez beat Belgian fellow qualifier Alison Van Uytvanck 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
This week's winner will collect $40,000.
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