The Western & Southern Open features 18 of the Top 20 women’s players, with seeds Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Li Na, Petra Kvitova, Francesca Schiavone, Marion Bartoli, Andrea Petkovic, Samantha Stosur, Agnieszka Radwanska, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, and Peng Shuai.

Li Na finally returned home to China where fans celebrated her French Open title.

“Yeah…ummm…I don’t know,” Serena said, measuring her words. “They like to put us on Court 2, me and Venus, for whatever reason. I haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe one day we’ll figure it out.”

The return of Venus and Serena Williams, both unseeded on the grasscourts at Eastboune after extended injury absenses from the tour, is the news in the final week of grasscourt warm-ups before the spotlight lands on the All England Club and 2011 Wimbledon.

Notes: Federer steps off the clay onto the grass and a first-round match-up with fellow former Wimbledon champ and No. 1 Hewitt (with the winner to likely to face former world No. 2 Haas in the next round); (6) Mayer a tough opener in front of the home crowd against nouveau-German Brown; the first-round Federer-Hewitt blockbuster is a rematch of last year’s final where Hewitt beat Fed; seeds Monfils, Dolgopolov and Raonic makes their debuts at the event; former champs in the field are Hewitt (2010), Haas (2009), Federer (2008, ’06-04), and Berdych (2007).

“Francesca is a claycourt player — she hits topspin and slice so well, so I just tried to play my tennis and keep her running,” Li said. “She’s a top player so you never know what will happen and when she will come back in the match, but when we went into the tiebreak I told myself it was my chance to do it. Before this tournament, people said I couldn’t do well on claycourts. Now I think they will change their minds.”

Schiavone beat France’s own Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-3, mixing up her game to confound the two-hander who committed 18 unforced errors to 11 winners.

“I am through. I’m in the semifinals, so that’s the thing,” Nadal told reporters. “I have to be playing better and better every day if I want to have chances to win the final and that’s what I’m going to try.”

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are set on a Sunday final collision course.

“I finally feel like you guys can call me Aussie Kim, because I won the title,” Clijsters told the crowd after the match. Clijsters picked up the nickname Aussie Kim when she used to date Australian former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. “I’ve been coming here for many years and you guys have always been amazing. I really appreciate it. It helps so much when you’re fighting to win the title.”