Flipkens falls in Birmingham

Birmingham, England – Top seed Kirsten Flipkens came up a third-round loser Thursday at the $235,000 Aegon Classic, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up.

Sixteenth-seeded Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova upended the Belgian Flipkens in 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 fashion at Edgbaston Priory Club.

Rybarikova was the Birmingham champion in 2009.

Meanwhile, third-seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea held off 13th-seeded Serb Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 1-6, 6-1, fifth-seeded German Sabine Lisicki snuck past Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, and American Madison Keys ousted sixth-seeded German Mona Barthel 6-3, 6-2 to reach the round of eight. Lisicki captured the title here two years ago.

In other third-round action involving seeds, Slovakian veteran Daniela Hantuchova knocked out No. 12 Kristina Mladenovic of France 3-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 and No. 15 and former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy bested New Zealand's Marina Erakovic 7-6 (7-3), 6-3. Hantuchova was the 2011 Birmingham runner-up to Lisicki.

Two other third-rounders saw American Alison Riske drub Russian fellow qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-2 and Croat Donna Vekic down American qualifier Maria Sanchez 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Friday's quarterfinals will pit Cirstea against Vekic, Lisicki versus Riske, Schiavone against Hantuchova, and Rybarikova versus Keys.

This week's winner will collect $40,000.