James Glover II / Star staff Stanford's Hilary Jo Barte hits a serve during her first-round match against Washington State's Aleksandra Stefanova during The Ojai on Thursday.

For Stanford's Hilary Jo Barte and USC's Amanda Fink, the two top seeds in the Pacific-10 women's singles, Thursday's first day of The 108th Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament was as much of a test of patience as it was a test of skill.

With courts and referees at a premium, both players were forced to endure extremely long waits before getting on the court, but both managed to handle the situation by winning two matches to advance to today's quarterfinals.

Barte, the freshman phenom, defeated Washington State's Aleksandra Stefanova 6-1, 6-1 in the first round. Nearly five hours later, Barte stepped back on the court to defeat Cal's Bojana Bobusic 6-2, 6-4.

In between the two matches, Barte did a little of everything.

She sat. She ate. She drank. She took her shoes off. She put her shoes back on. She jogged. She walked. Finally she played, winning her 19th match in a row and upping her Pac-10 record to 16-1.

"I've never had a wait like that," Barte said. "I try to take everything with a grain of salt. I started slowly (in the second match), but I don't think it had anything to do with the late start.

"But I was able to hang in there and got things going. It's been a long day, but a good one."

Barte was a highly touted freshman entering Stanford after leaving Harvard-Westlake High last year. Even she is surprised at her level of success. She's also loving her first Ojai experience.

"It's a beautiful place, even the water in the drinking fountains is great," Barte said.

Fink proved equally adept at playing the waiting game. After showing up at 9 a.m. for her scheduled 11:30 a.m. opening match, the former Calabasas High standout finally got to play at just after noon, defeating Oregon's Anna Powaska 6-2, 6-2.

"I got off to a 4-0 lead, but she snuck back by winning two in a row, Fink said. "I'm working right now on staying mentally focused and calm. I feel like I did a pretty good job of that in this match. Sometimes when I feel people sneaking back into the match I get a little frantic but today I didn't do that."

Fink's first match ended at 1:30 p.m., but she didn't play again until after 4 p.m. Once again, Fink was unfazed by the wait, defeating Arizona's Danielle Steinberg 6-2, 6-2.

A veteran of many Ojai tournaments, Fink came into Thursday knowing it was going to be a long day.

"As long as you do some jogging before and get yourself in the mind-set about moving and that you are about to play tennis, it's OK," Fink said. "I've done this for a while now, so I know what to expect."

Thursday's victories upped her season total to 32 and kept the momentum rolling on a terrific season that has seen Fink climb to No. 7 in the national rankings.

During a trip home to Calabasas before The Ojai, Fink told her parents just how happy she was with her play this season, especially after struggling in 2006-2007 when she posted a record of 24-12.

"I am so grateful to doing well this season, especially after last year. To come back as strongly as I have shows I was really meant to play this game," Fink said. "I am really happy about it. You get to a point in your college career where you are so grateful to be playing on a Pac-10, top-10 team and doing as well as I am doing. It feels great."

Fink admitted she had some doubts about her ability to compete at this level after her struggles last season. But instead of sitting back and moping about it, Fink opted to put in extra time with the intent of seeing if she could get back to her championship caliber play.

"You have a few choices of how hard you are going to work," Fink said. "I came back and decided I was going to put in the work and see how it goes. After last year I was just grateful to be on the team, so coming this far feels great."

Earning the No. 2 seed in a tournament that she deeply loves enhanced that feeling.

"It's an honor to be seeded in this tournament. I played here a lot growing up and I love it," Fink said. "There's something about the fact they use every court and it's such a big deal. It's so amazing how the whole community gets involved.

"Usually you don't see these kind of crowds unless it's the finals of the U.S Open. To think these people are paying $12 to see us play is amazing."

The two top seeds in the men's Pac-10 championship division also weathered the first-day delays. No. 1 seed Robert Farah defeated Arizona's Peter Zimmer 6-3, 6-4, then came back to defeat Michael Look of UCLA 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. No. 2 seed Kaes Van't Hof opened with a 7-6 (7), 6-4 win over Oregon's Geoff Embry. In the second round he defeated Juan Carlos Rebaza of Arizona State 6-4, 6-3.

Play continues with the quarterfinals today at Libbey Park and the Ojai Valley Athletic Club.