PARIS, May 22 -- The World No. 7 David Ferrer from Spain easily went through Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in straight sets, winning his first round match in the men's singles at the French Open on Sunday.
Ferrer stepped into the Philippe Chatrier court as the highest ranking player on the first competition day, seeing off the world No. 50 Finn 6-3, 6-3 and 6-1.
"I played very well, excellent tennis," said the 29-year-old, who knocked out No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of this year's Australian Open, reaching a Grand Slam semifinals for the first time.
"I always hope I get good performances in Paris. I think you need to take it step by step, one match after the other, because all matches are different," said Ferrer, whose best results here were two quarterfinal finish.
After Ferrer's victory in the center court, French star Jo- Wilfried Tsonga also grabbed an easy win by beating Jan Hajek from Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
The 17th seed Tsonga even whirled and jumped for celebration in front of an excited home crowd.
"It's an ideal match," said the 26-year-old. "I have never been that so relaxed, that cool."
In the women's singles, last year's runner-up Samantha Stosur defeated Iveta Benesova from Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 and the Australian will meet Romanian Simona Halep in the next round.
The 10th seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbian overcame Alona Bondarenko from Ukraine 6-3, 6-1.