Birmingham, England (SportsNetwork.com) - Top seed Simona Halep and former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka highlighted Tuesday's winners at the Aegon Classic Birmingham tennis event, a grass-court Wimbledon tune-up.

The former French Open runner-up Halep handled British wild card Naomi Broady 6-4, 6-2 to reach the third round, while the 12th-seeded two-time Australian Open champ Azarenka got past American Varvara Lepchenko 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 in opening-round play at Edgbaston Priory Club.

Another second-round result on Day 2 saw Czech Katerina Siniakova knock out seventh-seeded German Andrea Petkovic 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).

In other first-round action involving seeds, No. 10 Czech and last year's Birmingham runner-up Barbora Strycova held off Monday's Nottingham runner-up Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; No. 13 Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova snuck past Italian Karin Knapp 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-2; Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, the 2013 Aegon champion and 2011 runner-up, upended No. 14 Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 4-6, 7-6 (12-10), 6-4; No. 15 former top-ranked star Jelena Jankovic of Serbia handled Czech Tereza Smitkova 6-4, 6-4; and No. 16 Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia edged out German qualifier Tatjana Maria 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6). Jankovic is a two-time winner here and a former runner-up.

Several other women posted opening-round wins, including Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas, France's Kristina Mladenovic and Swiss teen Belinda Bencic, who was a runner-up in The Netherlands on Sunday.

Among those seeing second-round action on Wednesday will be second-seeded former world No. 1 and reigning Birmingham champion Ana Ivanovic, fifth-seeded 2014 Wimbledon runner-up Genie Bouchard and Azarenka, who will take on Diyas.

Ivanovic defeated Strycova in last year's Birmingham finale.

The 2015 Aegon Classic titlist will earn $124,000.