Navratilova in SW19 singles

The former Wimbledon champion beat 22-year-old Mara Santangelo of Italy 6-4 6-3 in the first qualifying round.

The 47-year-old is preparing to play singles at Wimbledon for first time in a decade later this month.

"If I'm a bit rusty I have good reason to be. I've now won a match so that's good," she said afterwards.

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Navratilova next faces Elena Likhovtseva, the qualifying competition's fourth seed from Russia.

The tennis legend won nine singles titles at Wimbledon in her prime and last played in the tournament in 1994 when Conchita Martinez beat her in the final.

But she showed she still possessed some of her grasscourt skills with an impressive display against Santangelo, who reached the fourth round of this year's Australian Open.

"I have played doubles against her so at least I had seen her, which helps," she said

"I still had to figure out how she played during the match and it took a while to get onto her serve.

"The grass is a lot simpler for me, I don't have to wonder should I come to the net or not. I missed a few volleys which would have been routine a few years ago but 20 years ago these girls weren't born so I did pretty good considering.

"I don't have as much power but I still have plenty of it. If I have to hit a ball hard I can but you don't want to give them hard balls. That's what they like."

Elsewhere at Eastbourne, Cara Black of Zimbabwe beat Italian Rita Grande 6-7 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) 6-0, while Virginia Ruana Pascual of Spain suffered a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 defeat to Australian Samantha Stosur.