Serena Williams beaten as Vera Zvonareva comes back from brink

Seeking to follow sister Venus into the quarter-finals, Williams hit 59 winners but her serve was broken - via an unfortunate double fault caused by two net-cords - while serving for the match at 6-3 5-4, and she went 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.

But it was a temporary reprieve as the Russian broke back and served out to love for a 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 victory over the reigning Wimbledon champion, who was playing her first tournament since her SW19 triumph last year.

The American, however, didn't seem too upset at the defeat, preferring to focus the competitive match practice the contest had given her.

She 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."

Zvonareva added: "It was definitely a tough match. Serena is a great champion and played some unbelievable tennis after a year not playing. A lot of respect to her."

Zvonareva next plays Australian seventh-seed Sam Stosur, who was untroubled as she beat Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 6-3 6-2.

Venus Williams was in unstoppable form as she hammered Ana Ivanovic in straight sets. The American, who like her sister is also playing her first tournament after a long injury absence, broke serve once in the first set and twice in the second to complete a 6-3 6-2 win.

She said afterwards: "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.

The Scot was blown away 6-1 in the first set and, although she took the second to a tie-break after two breaks of serve for each player, she failed to win a point as Azarenka completed a 6-1 7-6 (7/0) win.

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."Agnieszka Radwanska, of Poland, dumped out fourth seed Francesca Schiavone, of Italy, by an emphatic 6-3 6-2 scoreline, while 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).