Safin, Henin advance at Roland Garros

PARIS, May 27 (UPI) -- Two-time Grand Slam winner Marat Safin Sunday trounced Fernando Vicente in straight sets to begin this year's French Open Tennis Tournament in Paris.

The scores were 6-1, 6-3, 6-1, after a long, rain-filled opening day at Roland Garros.

In the 27-year-old Russian's lopsided victory, he broke his Spanish opponent eight times. Safin has never won the French, where he was eliminated in the first round in 2006.

In other men's matches, Potito Starace beat Ivo Minar 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), and Janko Tipsarevic topped Dusan Vemic 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

On the women's side, top-seeded Justine Henin beat Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-3, No. 8 seed Serena Williams beat Tsvetana Pironkova 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, Safin's sister -- 10th-seeded Dinara Safin -- beat Yuliana Fedak 7-5, 6-4, and Tamira Paszek defeated Aiko Nakamura 6-4, 6-0.