Garbine Muguruza off to a flyer, Petra Kvitova too good for Johanna Konta

Shahida Jacobs
Garbine Muguruza all smiles

Top seed Garbine Muguruza eased into the second round of the Nature Valley Classic while defending champion Petra Kvitova was too strong for Johanna Konta.

Wimbledon champion Muguruza dropped only three games en route to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova from Russia.

The Spaniard will face Barbora Strycova in the second round after the Czech came from a set down to beat American qualifier Jennifer Brady 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Reigning Birmingham champion Kvitova had too much in her locker for British No 1 Konta as she was a 6-3, 6-4 winner.

“We can expect some tough matches from the first round [in Birmingham], which on the other hand I think is good, because you have to really show a great performance from the beginning,” Kvitova said.

“I think that the match showed that, and I think that we showed good tennis today.”

The fourth seed will take on Australia’s Daria Gavrilova for a place in the quarter-finals.

Second seed Elina Svitolina from Ukraine overcame a second-set stumble to beat Donna Vekic 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

Fifth seed Julia Goerges also advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Maria Sakkari while the sixth-ranked Daria Kasatkina beat Kristyna Pliskova 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

However, there were two upsets on Tuesday as the seventh seed Elise Mertens was beaten 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-1 by Dalila Jakupovic and the eighth-ranked Coco Vandeweghe went down 6-3, 6-2 to Petra Martic.

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