Federer makes winning start

Roger Federer got his Dubai Tennis Championship campaign off to a winning start when he beat German player Benjamin Becker 6-1 6-4 in his first round match.

The five-time champion Swiss, who is seeded fourth in Dubai this time around, was at his clinical best and eased through to the last 16 in little more than an hour.

Arguably the highlight of the match occurred in the five game of the second set with the score on 2-3 when Federer hit a 'tweener' between his legs to set up an easy winner.

In the next round, Federer will come up against the winner of the clash between Radek Stepanek and Michael Russel.

Earlier in the day, Andreas Seppi battled past Florian Mayer 4-6 6-1 7-5, while Roberto Bautista Agut had little trouble in dispatching Adrian Ungur 6-1 6-3 to set up a potential clash with Novak Djokovic in the second round.

Dimitry Tursunov, the eighth seed, also booked his place in the last 16 when he outclassed Slovakia's Lukas Lacko 7-5 6-1.

In the night's final match, seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber had little trouble with his first round opponent Thiemo De Bakker, beating the Dutch player 6-3 6-3.