Impressive Safin marches into Paris second round

PARIS, May 27 (Reuters) Former world number one Marat Safin raced into the second round of the French Open with a 6-1 6-3 6-1 victory over Spanish lucky loser Fernando Vicente today.

The Russian, a semi-finalist in 2002 but beaten in the first round last year, needed just one hour, 24 minutes to advance.

In cool conditions with an intermittent drizzle, the 22nd seed dominated the world number 133 in all departments, racing through the first two sets in less than an hour.

The rain became harder in the third set, but Safin maintained his concentration to set up a meeting with the winner of the all-Serbian battle between Janko Tipsarevic and qualifier Dusan Vemic.

REUTERS BJR RK1630