Federer Rolls in Dubai Opener

Roger Federer began his attempt for a seventh title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Mikhail Youzhny in the first-round Monday.

The world number two seized the reins on this match by breaking Youzhny in the seventh game of the opening set to go up 4-3. The Swiss consolidated it with a hold and broke again to take the first set.

Federer then broke again on both of his chances in the second set to run away with the first-round contest in 56 minutes.

“[In a] best of three in a quick court sometimes you just can run away with the score, so that’s where maybe a bad five to ten minutes can cost you the match,” said Federer. “I think it was close in that first set. I think we were both trying to find our range. I’m happy I didn’t start to play too careful after it, because it is tough to play here in Dubai with the quick conditions.”

The six-time champion in Dubai didn’t even allow Youzhny a break point chance. He won 81 percent of first serve points to roll in straight sets. He will play the winner of Spaniards Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Fernando Verdasco in the second-round.

While Federer made sure he was not upset on Monday, fifth-seeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis was knocked out in the first-round in straight sets by Denis Istomin. The 65th-ranked Istomin beat the 14th-ranked Gulbis 7-5, 6-2 to drop Gulbis’ record on the season to 0-5.

Gulbis led 4-1 in the opening set before Istomin won 11 of the final 14 games.

“I’m not in good form right now,” said Gulbis. “I’m not feeling my shots at all. I have no timing. In practice, I have been playing worse than the match.”

Istomin moves on and will meet the winner of Czech Lukas Rosol and Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Portugal’s Joao Sousa was a winner on Monday as well, knocking off Irish wild card James McGee 6-1, 6-2. Sousa meets the winner of Andy Murray and Gilles Muller.

Russia’s Andrey Golubev beat France’s Fabrice Martin 7-5, 6-4 to push into the second-round. Golubev draws the winner of top-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic and Canadian Vasek Pospisil.

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