French Open champ Barty shows no signs of letdown in Birmingham opener

In her first match since capturing her maiden Grand Slam on clay at Roland Garros, Ashleigh Barty successfully opened her quest for the grass-court Birmingham Open. On Wednesday, the second-seeded Aussie rolled past Donna Vekic, 6-3, 6-4.

"I think it was probably as smooth as it could have gone. I felt really good with my feet on the grass," Barty said. "We haven't had a hell of a lot of grass court time because of the weather but in a sense that made it even better because it was fresh, it was new. I could really just play by feel and try and work my way into the match."

Barty is bidding to overtake Naomi Osaka for the No. 1 ranking this week. The newly crowned major champion, who is just 252 points behind the top-seeded Japanese, would become the first Australian woman to hold the top spot since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1976, and second overall.

Vekic was coming off a devastating three-set loss to Caroline Garcia in the Nottingham final on Sunday, which left her overcome with emotion.

In their Birmingham opener, former finalists Barty and Vekic traded breaks early on as both players looked to set the tone early. But it was the Aussie who was successful in that regard, claiming five straight games to go up a set and 2-0. She continued to go about her business, moving forward at every opportunity to take time away from the Croatian.

Refusing to go down without a fight, Vekic stopped Barty from serving out the match at 5-2, winning the next two games. It turned out to be a little too late, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless.

"I thought I served well when I needed to. There were times where I wasn't great, but when I needed it, it was there," said Barty. "And I did well to get in on Donna's service games. There were times where she made a lot of first serves in a row and I was able to dig and scrap my way into some points there."

Next up for Barty is Jennifer Brady, who toppled Lesia Tsurenko, 6-3, 6-3 earlier on Wednesday.