Australian Open: Petra Kvitova Gets Off To a Winning Start

Double Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova showed little sign of the illness that has been plaguing her to overcome Thai qualifier Luksika Kumkhum in straight sets at the Australian Open on Monday.

The Czech sixth seed has had the worst possible lead-up to the year's opening Grand Slam, with a gastro illness forcing her out of the Shenzhen Open and Sydney International, where she was defending champion.

But the aggressive baseliner put the ordeal behind her in the first round match, sweeping past Kumkhum 6-3, 6-1 in 70 minutes in blazing heat on Rod Laver Arena.

Kvitova, who is playing in her eighth Australian Open, with a semi-final appearance in 2012 her best showing so far, broke the Thai star to go 5-3 clear in the opening set then served out in 36 minutes.

She maintained the momentum in the second set, racing 3-0 clear before her opponent pulled a break back. But it was too little too late with the world number six clinching the match on a Kumkhum double fault.

Kvitova is coming off a solid 2015 where she won titles in Sydney, Madrid and New Haven, while making the decider of the season finale WTA Finals which Pole Agnieszka Radwanska won.

She next faces either fellow Czech Lucie Hradecka or local hope Daria Gavrilova.