Latasha Khan leads USA past Spain in Edmonton . Photo © 2006 Stocktonphotoinc.

The American women handily defeated Spain at the Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton this afternoon in their opening match of the Consolation (9th through 16th place) tourney, thereby assuring themselves a top-12 finish. Latasha Khan and Louisa Hall both triumphed in three game at the Nos. 1 and 2 positions over Elisabet Sado and Margaux Moros respectively (though Khan had to weather a tiebreaker session in her first game), leaving Ivy Pochoda to play a best-of-three dead-rubber match, which she similarly won in straight sets over Laura Alonso.

The Americans will now face the winner of the Hong Kong vs. Japan match in the semifinal round of this draw, the bottom half of which saw Australia beat Austria 3-0 to there by qualify for a meeting with the winner of the France vs. Germany meet this evening.

The three main-draw quarterfinals this afternoon all went three matches to love, with top seed England out-playing New Zealand, the Netherlands rising superior to Ireland and Egypt proving too talented for South Africa to handle.

Tonight's one remaining quarterfinal will pit France against Malaysia.

Furthering the noteworthy symmetry that has characterized this tournament so far, in all three of the completed quarterfinals the Nos. 2 and 3 players of the winning teams won their matches in straight sets while in each case the No. 1 matches were even after two games before the eventual winner took and maintained full command throughout the final two games. Tania Bailey of England defeated Kiwi star Shelley Kitchen, 6-9 9-7 9-4 9-2, Dutch torch-bearer Vanessa Atkinson whitewashed Aisling Blake of Ireland in the third and fourth games of her 9-1 8-10 9-0 9-0 victory and the gifted Egyptian shot-maker Omneya Abdel Kawy broke away in mid-match of her 7-9 10-8 9-4 9-0 tally at the expense of Tenille Swartz.

To see the full draws - click through here.

Partial Quarter-final Results:
[1] ENGLAND bt [6] NEW ZEALAND 3-0
Tania Bailey bt Shelley Kitchen 6-9, 9-7, 9-4, 9-2 (59m)
Vicky Botwright bt Jaclyn Hawkes 9-2, 9-4, 9-3 (31m)
Jenny Duncalf bt Louise Crome 9-0, 9-0 (12m)
[4] NETHERLANDS bt [9] IRELAND 3-0
Vanessa Atkinson bt Aisling Blake 9-1, 8-10, 9-0, 9-0 (30m)
Annelize Naude bt Laura Mylotte 9-5, 9-1, 9-7 (30m)
Orla Noom bt Eleanor Lapthorne 9-6, 9-3 (20m)
[3] MALAYSIA vs [10] FRANCE
[2] EGYPT bt [12] SOUTH AFRICA 3-0

9th to 16th Place Play-offs:
[8] HONG KONG Beat  [14] JAPAN 3-0
Rebecca Chiu  Beat  Mami Nishio  3-0 (9-2,9-1,9-4)  27m
Christina Mak  Beat  Sachiko Shinta  3-1 (9-3,7-9,9-5,9-5) 61m
Annie Au  Beat  Kozue Onizawa  2-0 (9-0,9-1) 14m

 [11] USA Beat [15] SPAIN 3-0
Latasha Khan Beat Elizabet Sado 3-0 (10-8, 9-6,9-6) 27m
Louisa Hall Beat Margaux Moros 3-0 (9-2,9-0,9-2) 18m
Ivy Pochoda Beat Laura Alonso 2-0 (10-8,9-3) 18m

[5] AUSTRALIA Beat [16] AUSTRIA 3-0
Kasey Brown  Beat  Pamela Pancis  3-0 (9-1,9-1,9-1) 26m
Amelia Pittock  Beat  Birgit Coufal  3-0 (9-2,9-2,9-3)  24m
Dianne Desira  Beat  Kornelia Hofer  2-0 (9-2,9-0) 12m

[7] CANADA Lost to [13] GERMANY 1-2
Runa Reta Beat Daniela Schumann  3-0 (9-2,9-0,9-5)  25m
Melanie Jans Lost to Katharina Witt  1-3 (4-9,9-5,5-9,3-9)  44m
Carolyn Russell Lost to Kathrin Rohrmuller 2-3 (7-9,9-3,9-4,6-9,4-9) 67m