Birmingham Classic: Defending champion Petra Kvitova and Garbine Muguruza kick off grass court seasons with wins

Garbine Muguruza and Petra Kvitova kicked off their grass court seasons on Tuesday with comfortable victories in the first round of the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham. [caption id=“attachment_4003453” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Petra Kvitova. AP[/caption] Spaniard Muguruza, the defending Wimbledon champion, dismantled Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 6-2 in just over 59 minutes to book a second-round clash against Czech Barbora Strycova. Defending the Birmingham title, Kvitova looked close to her best as she hit 26 winners, including five aces, to ease past Johanna Konta 6-3 6-4, extending her head-to-head record against the British number one to 3-1. “We can expect some tough matches from the first round, which on the other hand I think is good, because you have to really show a great performance from the beginning,” the 28-year-old Czech said. Two-time Wimbledon winner Kvitova takes on 14th ranked Australian Daria Gavrilova in the second round.