Playing her first WTA tournament of the year after teaming with her brother, Marat Safin, to represent Russia at the Hopman Cup last week, Safina took advantage of five double faults by Cirstea to advance to the second round after the 58-minute match at Ken Rosewall Arena.
In other matches, Alize Cornet of France beat No. 7 Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-2, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2.
Cornet and Cibulkova also played at the Hopman Cup, and Cibulkova won the title with compatriot Dominik Hbraty when Slovakia beat Safin and Safina in the final.
Top-seeded Serena Williams, who beat Australian Samantha Stosur in three sets in the first round Sunday, plays Sara Errani of Italy on Tuesday. Errani beat Casey Dellacqua of Australia 6-1, 6-2 Monday.
There were two illness-related pullouts and one injury retirement Monday. Fourth-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia withdrew with a stomach ailment and Victoria Azarenka, who won the Brisbane International title on Saturday, pulled out of her first-round match with a virus.
Melanie Smith of Britain advanced to the second round when Marion Bartoli of France retired with a left calf muscle strain at 1-1 in the first set.
In first-round men's play at the joint ATP-WTA event, seventh-seeded Tommy Robredo, a former Australian Open quarterfinalist, beat Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-4 and Michael Llodra of France defeated Denis Gremelmayr of Germany 6-0, 6-2.
Jarkko Nieminen of Finland beat Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-2, 7-6 (9) and Simone Bolelli of Italy defeated countryman Potito Starace 7-6 (1), 6-4.
The top four seeds - No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon and Argentina's David Nalbandian - were given first-round byes. Defending Australian Open champion Djokovic plays his first match Wednesday.
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