Svetlana steps onto grass as Eastbourne top seed

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 champion, will make her only pre-Wimbledon grass appearance from Monday as top seed at the Eastbourne Championships. The Russian, who also played semi-finals at Devonshire Park in 2005 and 2006, heads the field after the pullout of French Open champion Ana Ivanovic due to mental and physical exhaustion.
While the new number one from Serbia is resting prior to the June 23 start of the grass-court Grand Slam at the All England club, Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli will gamble on a wrist injury as she plays as second seed.
The Frenchwoman has been troubled by the problem for several weeks and said she had considered skipping Roland Garros. But instead of resting, Bartoli, a losing 2007 semi-finalist to Justine Henin, pushed herself to play on grass at Birmingham, dropping her opening match.
After going out in the Paris first round, the frustrated player sounded angry. "I'm just fed up. I'm going to turn off my mobile phone, turn off my TV set. Since the beginning of this year I've been playing and I felt tired. "It's five months I've been feeling this, in this state, being very tired."
Durable Russian Vera Zvonareva takes the third seeding ahead of Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska. Victoria Azarenka of Belarus is seeded fifth while French teenage sensation Alize Cornet, who reached the Paris third round before losing to Radwanska, is on sixth.
Czech seventh seed Nicole Vaidisova, who had three first-round losses on clay before a grass quarter-final this week in Birmingham, is seeded seventh ahead of Russian Nadia Petrova. American mother Lindsay Davenport, the 2001 winner who last played on the south coast in 2003, returned to the court for the first time since mid-April.
The 32-year-old, who returned to tennis last September as she broke a nine-month retirement, opens against Virginie Razzano of France.
SEEDS:
Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x1), Marion Bartoli (FRA x2), Vera Zvonareva (RUS x3), Agnieszka Radwanska (POL x4), Victoria Azarenka (BLR x5), Alize Cornet (FRA x6), Nicole Vaidisova (CZE x7), Nadia Petrova (RUS x8).