Last year's defeated finalist, Tomas Berdych, comfortably saw off Romanian Marius Copil in straight sets to advance to the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
The Czech won 6-3, 6-4 inside an hour and a half and the third seed will now face the winner of this afternoon's match between Ivan Dodig and Sergiy Stakhovsky.
World No6 Berdych was rarely troubled by his Romanian opponent with the qualifier unable to break Berdych's serve once during the contest and the 23 year-old looking out of his depth against the man five years his senior.
Berdych beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin del Potro and Roger Federer en route to last year's final before eventually losing to Novak Djokovic and may have to face Tsonga and del Potro this time around if he is to reach the final again.
Federer and Djokovic are the favourites to advance on the other side of the draw, meaning Berdych will have to be at his very best to replicate the run he enjoyed in 2013.
Elsewhere, Berdych's compatriot Lukas Rosol also advanced into the second round with a 7-6, 6-4 victory over Germany's Daniel Brands.
It took a tie-brak to seperate the pair in the opening set with Rosol edging Brands after the pair had exchanged breaks of serve.
Rosol tied up the match in the second set and will now face eighth seed Russian Dmitry Tursunov with the winner of that one rewarded with a potential quarter-final against Federer if the Swiss negotiates the second round as expected.
Sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny also progressed in two sets (6-3, 6-4), beating Poland's Michal Przyssiezny on court number one.
Radek Stepanek, however, was made to fight for his win on court three, the Russian coming from a set down to win the battle of the 35 year-olds against American Michael Russell.
Russell took the first 7-5 before Stepanek recovered to take the second set 6-3 and demolishing Russell 6-1 in the third.
Stepanek's reward is a second round tie against five-time winner Federer.
