A smiling Petra Kvitova skipped into the second round of Wimbledon with ease, the two-time champion beating Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-3 6-4 on a sun-bathed Centre Court.

Playing only her third event of the year after recovering from a knife attack in December, the Czech 11th seed used her swinging serve to great effect, signing off with a heavy ace.

Kvitova will next face the winner of the contest between American Madison Brengle and Richel Hogenkamp of the Netherlands.

The Czech won a warm-up tournament in Birmingham last month, beating Australia’s Ashleigh Barty in the final, after making her return to tennis at the French Open.

While Kvitova won through, Barty, her victim in that Birmginham final wasn’t so lucky, going down 7-5 7-6 (10-8) to Ukrainian fourth seed Elina Svitolina.

French Open runner-up Simona Halep also advanced to the second round with a 6-4 6-1 rout of Kiwi qualifier Marina Erakovic.

Five-time champion Venus Williams overcame a spirited performance from Belgian Elise Bertens to prevail 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 and was joined in the second round by fellow American seed Madison Keys.

Keys beat Japan’s Nao Hibino 6-4 6-4 in a tick over an hour.

The firs seeds gone from the women’s draw were 26th-seeded Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who fell 6-3 5-7 8-6 to German youngster Carina Witthoeft and Italian veteran Roberta Vinci, the 31st seed was beaten by Kristyna Pliskova 7-6 (8-6) 6-2.