Amelie Mauresmo yesterday became the victim of one of the biggest shocks at Eastbourne tennis in 25 years.

Mauresmo became the first top seed to lose to a qualifier in her opening match at the Devonshire Park event since 1980 when surrendering 6-4, 6-4 to little-known Russian Vera Douchevina.

The world No.3 from France said: "Where do I rate this among my defeats? I don't rate it, I want to forget it."

Mauresmo was a shadow of the player who reached the semi-finals of the Hastings Direct International Championships last year. She said: "A couple of times a year you have a pretty bad day and today was one of them.

"It was my first match on grass since I was in the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and I needed to have a better rhythm.

"I still need to work on that. Last year it wasn't too bad. I got to the semi-finals and got a little bit of rhythm and then did all right at Wimbledon.

"I'd have preferred to do it the same way this year but I will now have to adjust."

Mauresmo revealed she would return to Devonshire Park today to practise.

She said: "I won't do drills, I will play sets. I need to play points to get a proper feel for playing matches when it comes to Wimbledon next week."

Title-holder and second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova staggered through against Russian compatriot Anna Chakvetadze on a third-set tie-break.