Four More Top-Seeded Players Fall at Braemar

Entering a tennis tournament among the top-ranked players is a sign of respect. It always means you can usually expect an easy first-round match.

The only thing it has meant at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana this week is disaster.

Four more of the eight seeded players lost Thursday in the singles competition of the $25,000 United States Tennis Association women’s tournament that runs through Sunday.

Thursday’s losses include third-seeded Cecilia Fernandez of Torrance (to Melissa Brown of Scarsdale, N.Y., 6-3, 6-2), fifth-seeded Luciana Corsato of Brazil (to Digna Ketelaar of the Netherlands, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1), seventh-seeded Wendy Wood of Boston (to Clare Wood of England, 6-4, 6-1) and eighth-seeded Dee Ann Hansel of Rosewell, Ga., (to Brenda Schultz of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-3). Only fourth-seeded Kim Steinmetz of St. Louis (a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Jennifer Goodling of York, Pa.) remains alive among the top-seeded players.

Thursday also wasn’t a good day for Dena Levy of Woodland Hills. She lost, 6-1, 6-0, to Leila Meskhi of the Soviet Union.

In other singles matches Thursday, Maureen Drake of Canada beat Noelle Porter of San Clemente, 6-4, 6-1, and Shandra Livingston of Carson was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Natlie Bykova of the Soviet Union.

Levy also lost in doubles competition Thursday. She and her partner, Jennifer Fuchs of New York, were beaten by Fernandez and Themis Zambrzychi of Woodland Hills, 6-1, 6-2.

In other doubles matches, Cinda Gurney of Palos Verdes and Amy Frazier of Rochester, Minn., defeated Eve Zimmerman of Fair Oaks, Ca., and Wood, 6-1, 6-2; Meskhi and Bykova got past Ketelaar and Simone Schilder of the Netherlands, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2; and Lynn Lewis of San Diego and Karen Dewis of Canada beat Karen Huebner of Fresno and Helena Manset, 6-3, 6-0.