Safina leads women's French Open winners

PARIS, May 27 (UPI) -- World No. 1 Dinara Safina of Russia led Wednesday's women's winners at the French Open tennis tournament with a 6-1 6-1 rout of compatriot Vitalia Diatchenko.

Safina made an impressive start in the bid to win a grand slam tournament for the first time in her career.

The 23-year-old native of Moscow has reached two of the last four Grand Slam finals, including a 2008 runner-up finish to Serbia's Ana Ivanovic.

"(It was) a pretty good start for the tournament," Safina said after hardly breaking a sweat in her 2009 Roland Garros opener. "I just played a good game today, good enough to win."

Elsewhere Wednesday, unseeded Maria Sharapova downed No. 11 seed and fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-2, 1-6, 8-6; eighth-seeded Ivanovic topped Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 6-2; No. 9 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus downed unseeded Kristina Barrios of Germany 7-6 (7-1), 7-5; and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic was leading third-seeded Venus Williams 7-6 (7-5) before play was suspended.