Venus wins, Serena loses and Kim is out.

It says something about this extraordinary player that most people expected Serena Williams to progress against the world No 3 Vera Zvonareva in only her second match back after a year's absence from the game – and she wasn't far away from making it. As it is, the Aegon International will have to make do with just one comeback queen from that family in the quarter-finals after Venus Williams powered her way past former world No 1 Ana Ivanovic.


Serena actually served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and but for a double fault on break point might have made it. She still showed plenty of her famous tenacity and courage in coming back from 5-2 down to pull level in the third set, but just couldn't quite keep up the revival. Consequently, it was something of an anticlimactic victory for the No 1 seed, who won 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 in just over three hours, which was at least some compensation for the American; what Serena needed most of all was time on court and she's had five hours this week.

As a result, she will go into Wimbledon next week in better shape than she has any right to expect and fully justifying her bumped-up seeding.

Venus Williams continued her winning return with a straight-sets demolition of former world number one Ana Ivanovic at Eastbourne.

The five-time Wimbledon winner, who is joining her sister Serena in a return from long-term absence this week, moved closer to top form with a 6-3 6-2 victory over the Serb.

The second round victory took just over an hour and she will now prepare for a quarter-final on the English south coast on Thursday.

"I feel I'm playing very tough, playing well on big points," said Venus, who last competed at the tournament 13 years ago. "I just need to continue.

"These matches have been huge and crucial for me to just get back literally into the swing of things. I'm focusing on all the positives, and I think there's a lot of them.

Meanwhile the last of the big 3, Kim Clijsters, has been forced to withdraw due to an ankle injury she re-sustained this week. The world No. 2 Belgian was advised by doctors to withdraw from the grand slam, which starts on Monday, after carrying out tests yesterday.

Her demise saw Sam Stosur rise to 10th seeding, with fellow Australian Jarmila Gajdosova moving up one place to 27th seed.

Defending champion Serena Williams, who was originally promoted from 26th in the rankings to eighth seed, will now be No. 7.

Bulgarian Tsevtana Pironkova moved into the seedings at No. 32.

Clijsters, who injured her right foot at the Unicef Open in the Netherlands on Tuesday, used Twitter to reveal she would not be playing next week.

"Hey guys, bad news... No Wimbledon for me this year," she said.

Oh yeah and I heard Sabine got her wild card :)