Britain's Georgina Stoop, ranked a lowly 379 in the world, came within a whisker of a stunning win over French Open quarter-finalist Kaia Kanepi in the first qualifying round for a place in the International Women's Open at Eastbourne.

Estonian star Kanepi, who rose to 34 in the world after reaching the last eight at Roland Garros, needs to qualify for the traditional Wimbledon warm-up event because of a late entry following doubts over a hip injury and finally squeezed through 6-7 6-1 7-5 against London-based Cambridgeshire player Stoop.

But having snatched the first set in a tie-breaker before being almost blown away by Kanepi's recovery in the second, Stoop fought back from 4-0 down to 5-5 in the decider and saved two match points before finally giving way after just over two hours on court.

Stoop, 20, now moves on to next week's qualifiers for Wimbledon and said: "This performance was was just what I needed right now and even though I lost I'll take a lot of confidence into next week after playing so well against a top player."

Elena Baltacha, Britain's number three from Enfield, who beat Kent's Naomi Cavaday 6-2 6-4 to reach the second qualifying round, Amanda Elliott and Anna Fitzpatrick are also trying to negotiate into the main draw at Eastbourne event to join Katie O'Brien, the domestic number two, and Melanie South who have been awarded wild cards into the main draw.

South, 22, became the first Briton since Jo Durie in 1992 to reach the quarter-final in the DFS Women's Classic at Birmingham last week, to earn her wild card ahead of Baltacha who fell in the first round.

After the withdrawal of French champion and world number one Ana Ivanovic through injury, Russian world number four Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat Kanepi in Paris, is the top seed at Eastbourne where the main draw starts on Monday - but probably without second seed Marion Bartoli.

Last year's beaten Wimbledon finalist from France suffered a wrist injury during the DFS tournament and has warned she may have to pull out next week to protect her chances of playing in the All-England Championships.