Clinical Kvitova delights in Vesnina trouncing

Petra Kvitova got back to winning ways in emphatic fashion at the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy, thrashing seventh seed Elena Vesnina 6-2 6-0.

Kvitova suffered a first-round exit to Andrea Petkovic at the Australian Open earlier this month, but looked in superb form on Wednesday as she made the most of a wildcard.

"I'm very happy with the win and with the game I was able to play," said the two-time Wimbledon champion.

"I love to play indoors and it's great to be in St. Petersburg playing for the first time as well. I felt good in the court."

Kvitova will now face Irina-Camelia Begu, who got the better of Petkovic on Monday.

Jelena Ostapenko beat home favourite Vera Zvonareva 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 in round two, but fellow seeds Caroline Garcia and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova were knocked out by qualifier Elena Rybakina and Ekaterina Makarova respectively.

Wednesday's action was rounded off by a thumping 6-2 6-1 win for Daria Kasatkina against Alize Cornet.