Serena, Federer have it easy

Paris (Agencies): Serena Williams and Roger Federer both enjoyed Sunday afternoon strolls at Roland Garros as they seized the opportunity to gain head starts over their French Open rivals in ruthless fashion. A year after suffering her only first round loss in a grand slam, a defeat that still haunts her, American Williams destroyed Georgian Anna Tatishvili 6-0, 6-1 in an ominous 51-minute display of power tennis.

Federer followed Williams on to a less than full Chatrier court and barely raised a sweat in cool, overcast conditions as he disposed of grand slam debutant Pablo Carreno-Busta. The Swiss former champion, seeded two and with a realistic chance of reaching the final after being placed in the opposite half of the draw to his Roland Garros nemesis Rafa Nadal and world number one Novak Djokovic, breezed to a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 victory over the fresh-faced Spaniard. Serbian Ana Ivanovic, a third former French Open champion scheduled to brighten up a first day which featured 32 matches, had to work a little harder to reach the second round. The 2008 champion, who has never hit those heights again, got past Croatia's Petra Martic despite losing a set. Federer once had his nose put out of joint when forced to launch the French Open's Sunday start, unique amongst the four grand slams, in 2006, describing it as "tricky".