| Monday, 23 June 2008 Written by Adam Lincoln Marion Bartoli has had a testing couple of months, but she has clearly been buoyed by her return to the English turf. Last week at Eastbourne the 23-year-old Frenchwoman matched her 2007 effort of reaching the semi-finals, falling to eventual champion Agnieszka Radwanska. Now the task at hand is to repeat the finals run she so famously achieved last year by defeating Justine Henin to make an appointment with Venus Williams. So far, so good: today the number 11 seed cruised past Germany’s next great hope, Sabine Lisicki in straight sets, 6-2,6-4. Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska showed she hadn’t left her winning form in Eastbourne, demolishing Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-0. The 14th seed's younger sister, Urszula – Wimbledon junior champion last year – was also impressive in her dispatch of Klara Zakopalova, 6-1, 6-4. Russian Maria Kirilenko, who won the claycourt events at Barcelona and Estoril in recent weeks, was unable to find her footing on the green stuff, however, folding in straight sets to unheralded compatriot Vera Dushevina, 6-3, 6-3. Likewise, number 30 seed Dominika Cibulkova fell to China’s Zheng Jie, 6-4, 6-3, a disappointing result for the fast-rising Slovakian teenager. That said, Zheng is a far better player than her ranking of 133 would suggest: she was sidelined by a left ankle injury last year, and after reaching the third round at Roland Garros was rewarded with a wild card at the Championships. The 15th seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary was an easy winner over experienced Italian Tathiana Garbin and 18th seed Nicole Vaidisova, quarter-finalist at the Championships last year also prevailed. Vaidisova has had a difficult season, only snapping a six-match losing streak at Birmingham two weeks ago. But she was the first player to complete a match at this year’s event, skipping past fellow Czech Zuzana Ondraskova, 6-2, 6-2. Kateryna Bondarenko, recent winner of the title at Birmingham, needed three sets to graft her way past Rika Fujiwara of Japan. The Ukrainian’s elder sister, Alona, the number 28 seed, was similarly stretched by Britain's Melanie South. Number eight seed Anna Chakvetadze survived by the skin of her teeth, edging Stephanie Dubois of Canada 8-6 in the third set. Swiss veteran Patty Schynder, playing her 13th Wimbledon in a row, was less fortunate, however. The number 12 seed succumbed in three sets to Australia’s Casey Dellacqua – the same player who sent her packing from the Australian Open in January. Aussie wild card Samantha Stosur, on the comeback from illness, was also in encouraging form, beating Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru, 6-2, 6-2.
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