Karen Kronemeyer qualifies in San Diego. (Photo © 2007)

Samantha Cornett and Karen Kronemayer both won in straight sets last night to advance to the main draw of the first annual Betteridge & Breitling San Diego Classic, a $ 12,500 WISPA ranking tournament hosted at San Diego Squash. Cornett out-played Mexico’s Ivonne Diaz, 9-2, 7 and 7, while the Dutch veteran Kronemayer rose superior to Cornett’s Canadian compatriot Sally Norgate (a fifth-set-tiebreaker Wednesday-afternoon winner over Princeton freshman star Amanda Siebert) by a count of 9-4, 0 and 2. Norgate’s thrilling marathon with Siebert (who won a 10-8 fourth game before bowing by the same taut margin in the fifth) seemed to have taken a toll on her when she played the relatively fresh Kronemayer several hours later.

Cornett will now meet up with Manuela Manetta, the fourth-seeded Italian, while Kronemayer has landed in a much more favorable spot in the 16-player main draw, namely against the eighth seed Sarah Parsons of Canada. If the pre-tournament seedings hold up, the semifinal round on Saturday will feature a rematch of last week’s Epstein Becker & Green tourney in nearby Los Angeles, where top seed Natalie Grainger defeated fourth seed Lauren Briggs (the No. 3 seed here) and the Egyptian world junior champion Raneem El-Weleily had too much weaponry for Manetta. Grainger then came back from two games to one down to triumph over El-Weleily, which should provide an intriguing backdrop if, as seems abundantly possible, this talented pair clash again this coming Sunday afternoon.

Other players to watch this weekend include a pair of collegians, namely Lily Lorentzen, who won the U. S. Intercollegiate Individual crown as a Harvard freshman in ’06 before transferring to Stanford this past fall, and Siebert’s Princeton teammate/classmate Neha Kumar, who played a key role (as did Siebert) in leading the Tigers to their first Howe Cup championship (emblematic of the national team college title) in eight years.

Betteridge and Breitling San Diego WISPA Open    [THE DRAW]
Qualifying Final-Round Recap:
Samantha Cornett (CAN) d Ivonne Diaz (MEX 9-2, 9-7 9-7;
Karen Kronemayer(NED) d Sally Norgate(CAN) 9-4, 9-0 9-2.