Tennis-French Open champion labours to three-set win

(Adds quotes) By Clare Lovell LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - French Open champion Garbine Muguruza said she had to play ugly on Monday to negotiate Wimbledon's perilous grass courts and a dangerous opponent. But for an appreciative Centre Court crowd, the powerful tennis the elegant Spaniard produced in downing Camila Giorgi 6-2 5-7 6-4 looked very easy on the eye. "Sometimes you don't win very beautiful, but you just got to be there, you know, and fight for the match," the 22-year-old said. Muguruza, is no slouch on grass, having reached the final here last year but the aggressive Giorgi made her work hard to transfer her Paris clay punch to Wimbledon's lawns. In a match coinciding with the Spain v Italy clash at Euro 2016 in France, the Spanish world number two and her battling Italian opponent, ranked 65 places below, entertained the crowd with intense rallies of relentless ferocity. It was the Spaniard's confidence and enormous serve that got the better of Giorgi -- but not before the 24-year-old Italian had overcome bouts of inconsistency to counter the power in the second set. Giorgi eventually forced a forehand error to grab the set before it reached a tiebreak. Muguruza kept her cool, though, and put her foot down in the 10-minute third game of the third set, earning six break points before finally wrestling the game from the underdog. A big serve that Giorgi could only put wide won Muguruza the match and a clash with Slovak qualifier Jana Cepelova in the second round. "I think Wimbledon is a very tricky tournament, because the grass sometimes, it can give you surprise," she said. "All the matches are quite more equal," she said. "It's not like in clay, where you got more time and you can survive more. Here you, right away, are in danger if you don't go for it." (Reporting by Clare Lovell)