Eastbourne:
Australia's Samantha Stosur, playing for the first time since her defeat by Francesca Schiavone in the French Open final, struggled to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over American Melanie Oudin at the Aegon International on Monday.
Oudin, who beat Jelena Jankovic and reached the fourth round as a qualifier at Wimbledon last year, dropped the opening set after conceding her serve at 2-2 on a forehand error.
Stosur struggled at the start of the second set, hitting five double-faults after breaking to lead 1-0. She dropped the next four games and faced a break point for 1-5 that she saved with an ace before staging a fightback.
The Australian struck three aces as she leveled at 4-4, and hit a winning volley at the net to break for 5-4 before serving out for the match.
"I was very pleased with it," Stosur said. "Melanie had a great Wimbledon last year and obviously likes playing on grass, so to get through that one in straight sets, I'm really happy.
"I lost my serve and maybe started going for a little too much, and things can turn around pretty quick on grass and before you know it you're 4-1 down. But I was able to turn it around."
Stosur said it took her a while to get over her defeat to Italy's Schiavone in Paris.
"It was tough. The next couple of days when I had a chance to switch off and not think about tennis, it always kept cropping up," she said.
"But since coming here and starting to practise again and playing today, you can't keep dwelling on a match that happened nine days ago."
Eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France also struggled, eventually overcoming Russia's Vera Dushevina 6-4, 7-5.
In the men's event, third-seeded Gilles Simon of France made a successful return to the court from a knee injury.
Playing his first match since March, Simon claimed his first victory of the season by outlasting Russia's Evgeny Korolev 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-4.
American James Blake, who has dropped to No. 110 following a similar injury and absence from the tour, failed to match Simon on his comeback and was beaten 7-6 (3), 7-5 by fourth-seeded Julien Benneteau of France.
In other matches, sixth-seeded Horacio Zeballos of Argentina edged Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 and eighth-seeded Frenchman Michael Llodra overwhelmed Germany's Martin Emmrich 6-0, 6-3.