Lacklustre Djokovic Reaches Dubai Second Round

Djokovic bagged the opening set after fending off two break points in the final game.

Novak Djokovic produced a lacklustre performance to earn a 6-3 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Flavio Cipolla in the first round of the Dubai Championships on Tuesday.

Although Cipolla had no weapons to cause any significant damage, he unsettled the top-seeded Serbian by relentlessly chasing after the ball.

Djokovic, who was still trying to adjust to the conditions after competing indoors in Europe last week, bagged the opening set after fending off two break points in the final game.

Then world number three was tested to the limit in the second game of the second set when he was stretched to six deuces. He survived the Cipolla onslaught to hold for a 2-0 lead.

Three more consecutive breaks of serve from 3-1 left Djokovic leading 5-2 and he safely served out the match.

"I'm happy that I'm through in straight sets but it certainly wasn't the performance I was looking for," Djokovic told reporters.

"I didn't expect him to play so many short balls and with the change of pace that's probably what didn't give me a lot of rhythm.

"But it's alright. Hopefully I can improve my game towards the finish of the tournament."

A struggling Gilles Simon also struggled to adapt to the conditions and took over two hours to tame 469th-ranked Kuwaiti wildcard Mohammed Ghareeb 5-7 6-4 6-4.

Ghareeb surprised world number eight Simon with a scorching forehand down the line to take a 3-2 lead and kept up the momentum with some powerful groundstrokes to take the opening set.

Simon responded by breaking to lead 2-0 in the second set, and although he dropped his own serve at 5-3 he broke back to love to level the match.

In the final set, games went with serve until Simon broke for the match when Ghareeb sent a forehand wide.

"I just arrived from Marseille and yesterday was the first time I played outside, and it's so different," said Simon. "So at the beginning of the match I was really playing bad. I had a lot of problems in my game.

"He was confident and he just played an amazing match. That's why it was so hard."

Eighth seed Marat Safin was unlucky to be drawn against a player ranked just one place below him and it was barely a surprise when he was defeated 6-3 5-7 6-3 by world number 26 Richard Gasquet.