Former world number one Victoria Azarenka has lost her first match after a three-month injury layoff to Italy's Camila Giorgi at the ATP-WTA Eastbourne International.
The two-time Australian Open champion, who hadn't played since early March due to a foot injury, managed to stand the pace for nearly three hours before losing 4-6 6-3 7-5 to her 42nd-ranked opponent.
"I wanted a competitive match to test myself," said an upbeat Azarenka, 24, after the first round tie at the pre-Wimbledon grasscourt tournament.
"The most important thing was that I was there playing and I was healthy.
"I can always get better from here. I didn't expect a perfect match, but there are a lot of positive things that came out. I wanted to test myself and that's what I did."
The Belarusian rallied from 4-2 down to win the first set but Giorgi, who has already beaten top 10 players Dominika Cibulkova and Maria Sharapova this season, fought back.
The Italian, who played a first WTA final this year in Poland, came back in the second set and won despite nine double-faults after taking a 5-0 lead over Azarenka.
Giorgi, whose father-coach Sergio was going through every emotion in a dramatic display in the player box, levelled at a set each as world number eight Azarenka's early confidence appeared to fade.
The third set was tight until the seed gave away the sixth game for 2-4 with a double-fault, only to break back in the tenth to make it 5-5.
Azarenka was then broken for 5-6, with Giorgi serving out a game later as her opponent's return sailed long on match point.
The Italian next plays 109th-ranked British wild card Johanna Konta, who beat Swiss qualifier Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-2.
In the men's draw, Finn Jarkko Nieminen began with an upset of seventh seed Santiago Giraldo, defeating the Colombian 6-3 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 after suffering a leg problems last week in the Queen's third round.
A French pair advanced, with Julien Benneteau defeating Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun 6-2 6-4 and Eduardo Roger-Vasselin beating Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3 6-4.
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