Eastbourne exits: Schiavone, Wozniacki lose in 1st round in Wimbledon warmup

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Schiavone, Wozniacki beaten in Eastbourne

EASTBOURNE, England — French Open champion Francesca Schiavone and defending champion Caroline Wozniacki lost first-round matches Tuesday at the Eastbourne International.

Also beaten were fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska and sixth-seeded Flavia Pennetta. Kim Clijsters fared far better in her first match on grass in nearly four years, defeating fellow Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-1, 6-1 in this Wimbledon warmup.

On the men’s side on a blustery day, top-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain beat Lukasz Kubot of Poland 7-5, 7-6 (3) to line up a second round meeting with Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

Second-seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez retired after receiving shoulder treatment. He was trailing British wild card James Ward 6-3, 5-4.

Schiavone, seeded second, fell to Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 7-5, 6-3. The top-seeded Wozniacki lost 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to France’s Aravane Rezai.

“She tried to take the ball early and hit every shot,” Wozniacki said. “Definitely, I would like to have got some more matches here but I just need to keep my head up and play some practice matches and prepare for Wimbledon that way.”

Clijsters last played on grass in the 2006 Wimbledon semifinals. On Tuesday, she ousted her 20-year-old opponent in 54 minutes.

“Yanina definitely wasn’t playing her best tennis today,” Clijsters said. “But at the same time from the beginning on I was very aggressive and really trying to go for the lines a lot.”

Radwanska, the 2008 champion, lost 7-6 (2), 6-1 to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. Pennetta was beaten 7-6 (5), 6-1 by Russian qualifier Ekaterina Makarova. Nadia Petrova struggled before edging Croatian qualifier Karolina Sprem 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4).