Serena Williams believes launching her comeback at Eastbourne could pay off at Wimbledon despite her second-round defeat.
The American lost in three sets to top seed Vera Zvonareva at the AEGON International, with the Russian gaining some revenge for her defeat to Williams in the Wimbledon final last year.Returning to action after a foot injury caused by broken glass, and a blood clot which Williams says was life-threatening, the 29-year-old began with a victory over Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova.
But she came up just short against Zvonareva, being broken as she served for the match at 6-3 5-4, and going on to lose the set in a tie-break.
The tables were turned as the American saved three match points with Zvonareva serving for victory at 5-4 in the third set.
It proved to be a temporary reprieve though, as Zvonareva broke again and served out to love for a 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 victory.
Williams, who was playing her first tournament since last year's Wimbledon, said: "One or two points [different], I could have won the match. So it's not overly disappointing. It's just the fact I just kept missing short balls.
"It was a good two matches for me. I couldn't be happier with the amount of tennis that I've played. Every time I come here [to Eastbourne] I enjoy it. I think it's a beautiful city on the water."
Williams' sister Venus did reach the quarter-finals as she powered past Ana Ivanovic.
In her first tournament following a five-month absence, the five-time former Wimbledon champion hammered Ivanovic 6-3 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
"I felt good to be able to get on top of her today," Venus Williams said on lta.org.uk.
"Today was great, no breaks of serve, that's ideal for me in the match. I was really happy to have those clean service games and not a lot of errors."
Home interest in the women's draw was ended as British number one Elena Baltacha suffered a straight-sets defeat to third seed Victoria Azarenka, 6-1 7-6 (7/0).
Nevertheless Baltacha, who won last week's AEGON Nottingham Challenge, said: "I couldn't ask for better preparation, winning last week and playing someone in the top five going into Wimbledon.
"I'm very happy right now with everything. I think I'm in great form."
Second seed Li Na - the French Open champion - was beaten by Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 7-6(9/7) 6-3.
Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland dumped out fourth seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy - the French Open runner-up - by an emphatic 6-3 6-2 scoreline.
Fifth seed Petra Kvitova needed two tie-breaks to get past Russia's Elena Makarova in straight sets, the Czech prevailing 7-6 (10/8) 7-6 (7/4).
Marion Bartoli, the tournament's sixth seed, also progressed with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez while Australian Samantha Stosur beat Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 6-3 6-2.
British men's number two James Ward, who lost to Tsonga in the semi-finals at Queen's, could not repeat those heroics as he exited in the first round to third seed Janko Tipsarevic, 6-3 4-6 6-2.
Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria produced a second-round upset to beat South African sixth seed Kevin Anderson 6-3 6-2 and Italy's Andreas Seppi eased past American qualifier Donald Young 7-6 (7/1) 6-3.
Lucky loser Illya Marchenko was also eliminated, the Ukrainian - who had replaced absent eighth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber - losing 6-3 1-6 6-2 to Russia's Igor Kunitsyn.
Julien Benneteau of France needed three sets to beat India's Somdev Devvarman, eventually winning 7-6(7/1) 6-7(10/8) 6-3.
Kei Nishikori was 3-2 up against Germany's Rainer Schuettler before the rain hit and Olivier Rochus' match against Carlos Berlocq was also stopped with the score at 3-6 7-6(7/5) 1-1.
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