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Venus crashes out in Eastbourne

Venus Williams was beaten by Daniela Hantuchova © PA Photos

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Daniela Hantuchova claimed her first victory over Venus Williams to send the American tumbling out of the quarter-finals of the AEGON International at Eastbourne.

The five-time Wimbledon champion, playing at Eastbourne for the first time since 1998, lost 6-2 5-7 6-2 to Hantuchova, who finally beat Williams at the 11th attempt.

Williams has been out of action since January after suffering an abdominal injury, but looked in ominous form as she bowled over a determined Ana Ivanovic on Wednesday.

However, Williams was always on the back foot after a rain delay on Thursday and soon found herself a break down to the in-form Hantuchova, who reached the final in Birmingham last week.

Having clinched the opening set, Hantuchova forged another break in the second, but was pegged back by Williams, who bounced back to force the match to a decider.

But once again Williams was left to rue failure to hold her serve as an early break proved decisive, and Hantuchova held her nerve to book a semi-final clash against Petra Kvitova, who beat Agnieszka Radwanska 1-6 6-2 7-6(2).

Victoria Azarenka is a doubt for Wimbledon after she retired from her quarter-final with Marion Bartoli. The world No. 5 was trailing 6-2 2-0 when she was forced to concede.

Bartoli will now play Samantha Stosur who knocked out top seed Vera Zvonareva 4-6 7-6(4) 6-4 in a high quality encounter. Stosur trailed by a set and a break to the world No. 3, but she battled back for a huge confidence boost going into Wimbledon.

Zvonareva had defeated Serena Williams in three sets the previous day, but this time it was the Russian who struggled to go the distance, falling 0-4 down in the deciding set. Zvonareva did cut that deficit to 4-5, but Stosur stayed calm to serve out to love for victory.

At the UNICEF Open, Jelena Dokic continued her good form with a 7-6(2) 6-4 victory over Johanna Larsson, while Kim Clijsters' conqueror Romina Oprandi beat Kimiko Date-Krumm 7-6(3) 6-4.

However, second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova appears to be heading out after rain stopped play with Dominika Cibulkova leading 7-5 4-6 3-0, and third seed Yanina Wickmayer departed 6-4 6-4 to Roberta Vinci.

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