Riske means business in Birmingham

American qualifier Alison Riske continued her love affair with the Birmingham WTA tournament on Thursday when she reached her third career quarter-final at the Wimbledon warm-up.

Riske beat fellow qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia in just 54 minutes, 6-1 6-2.

This is the third time Riske has reached the quarter-finals or better at the WTA level and all three have come in Birmingham.

In 2010, she lost to Maria Sharapova in the semi-finals while, a year later, Riske went down to Daniela Hantuchova in the quarter-finals.

Riske was the second American to reach the quarter-finals of the grasscourt event on Thursday, with Madison Keys pulling off a 6-3, 6-2 win over German sixth seed Mona Barthel.

“I was just hoping to get a couple matches on grass courts this week and get used to them a little bit more, so I’m really happy to get to the quarterfinals here,” Keys said.

Hantuchova rallied from 2-0 down in both the second and third sets, and survived 14 aces, to defeat French 13th seed Kristina Mladenovic, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.

Magdalena Rybarikova, the Slovak 16th seed, stunned top seeded Belgian, Kirsten Flipkens, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.

Elsewhere, third seed Sorana Cirstea won a quick three-setter against Bojana Jovanovski, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1.

German fifth seed Sabine Lisicki rallied from a break down in the third set to beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 while veteran Italian Francesca Schiavone defeated Marina Erakovic, 7-6(7/3), 6-3.

Croatian 16-year-old Donna Vekic beat American qualifier Maria Sanchez, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.