Eastbourne tennis chiefs are demanding compensation for the absence of top players from this year's tournament.

Championship director John Feaver will have talks with WTA tour bosses at Wimbledon next week.

The Britannic Asset Management Championships is classified as a tier one event, so the tour is supposed to provide one of the top three in the world.

Title holder Lindsay Davenport withdrew due to a knee injury and Jennifer Capriati refused to step in at the eleventh hour.

That leaves world No. 8 Jelena Dokic, fresh from winning the DFS Classic in Birmingham, as the leading seed for the event which gets underway today.

A tournament spokesman revealed: "There will be a meeting during Wimbledon when John will raise the matter with the WTA.

"There is a precedent for this happening this year and the regulations include a financial penalty clause if it does."

Martina Hingis is also injured and the other players in the top seven, the Williams sisters, Monica Seles and Kim Clijsters, decided against making Eastbourne part of their Wimbledon preparations.

The field still includes eight of the world's top 20. Wild cards have also been awarded to crowd pullers Anna Kournikova, Mary Pierce and 11-time champion Martina Navratilova.