Mary Pierce tumbled out of Eastbourne in her first match on grass for two years.

Japanese No.1 Ai Sugiyama exposed Pierce's absence of meaningful action on the surface with a routine 6-4, 6-4 victory yesterday in the first round of the Britannic Asset Management Championships.

However, the injury-plagued French ace believes she still has the weapons to perform well at Wimbledon.

The former world No. 3 refused to be despondent, even though it took doubles specialist Sugiyama only an hour to see her off on a centre court bathed in sunshine.

Pierce had not played on grass since Wimbledon 2000 and her preparations for the Devonshire Park showpiece were limited after reaching the quarter-finals of the French Open.

"Of course I wanted to win, but it's my first match on grass," she said.

"I took some time off after Wimbledon and then when I got here on Thursday started playing for about two to three hours a day. It felt nice out there. The more I play on it the more I get used to it.

"I remember at first it felt very awkward. We only play three weeks a year on grass, so it's not something you practise on at home. If we had a longer season on it and played more tournaments then I would do much better.

"Wimbledon is the most prestigious of the Grand Slams, so I wouldn't skip grass. I think I have a really good game to do well on grass. For me it's a matter of being healthy."

That has been a problem for Pierce since winning the French Open two years ago.

She played only a handful of matches last season, due to ankle trouble and a serious back injury. Her comeback in the Australian Open at the start of this year was cut short after just four games.

A sore throat and runny nose left her feeling so under the weather yesterday morning that she "didn't want to get out of bed."

Pierce, her ranking now down to 74 and dependent on a wild card for her place in the line-up, may wish she had stayed under the sheets.

Sugiyama was the type of opponent to avoid in the circumstances. The tigerish world No. 30 from Tokyo is a reliable baseliner and she only needed one break of serve in the first set.

Pierce showed glimpses of her old form with some robust backhands of her own, but consecutive breaks from 1-1 in the second set emphasised the inconsistency which comes with inactivity.

There was further misery for the French as Eastbourne specialist Anne Kremer reached round two with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 win against Nathalie Dechy.

Only four places divide the pair in the ratings and Kremer, from Luxembourg, had to work hard for her win.

She was a semi-finalist in 2000 and a quarter-finalist the year before, so remaining French hope and second seed Sandrine Testud cannot be relishing their clash in the last 16.

Martina Navratilova won the Eastbourne doubles with Pam Shriver for six years in succession during the Eighties but her challenge with Natasha Zvereva finished in the first round yesterday.

They went out 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 against Amanda Coetzer and Lori McNeil.

The trend of defeats for star names was maintained as Anna Kournikova and Chanda Rubin lost to Janet Lee and Wynne Prakusya 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Navratilova, 45, plays her first singles match for eight years today against Russian world No. 23 Tatiana Panova, while Kournikova faces Rita Grande.