Wrist Injust Knocks Del Porto Out of Dubai, as Federer and Djokovic Move On

Fourth seed Roger Federer opened his bid for a sixth Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Benjamin Becker, upping his record to 38-5 at the event. Federer lifted the Dubai trophy in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2012.

"I'm extremely happy with today's match," said Federer. "Coming out and playing free tennis like that right off the bat is a good feeling. I know probably Benjamin has been doing a lot of traveling back and forth, Australia, Europe, America, back to Dubai, back for Indian Wells and Miami, but you've got to take advantage of that. I have been here for some time. I had a good preparation. I'm happy it paid off thus far."

Andreas Seppi advanced with a win over Florian Mayer, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, and moves on to face on to face the seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber defeating qualifier Thiemo de Bakker 6-3, 6-3.

"I just tried to keep fighting," said Seppi, who was 1-4 down in the third set. "I didn't have so many matches under my belt this year, so I just tried to stay in the match and he gave me some chances to come back. For sure it was an important win for me."

Dmitry Tursunov defeated Lukas Lacko 7-5, 6-1, while Roberto Bautista Agut defeated qualifier Adrian Ungur 6-1, 6-3. Meanwhile, it was Tomas Berdych who defeated qualifier Marius Copil 6-3, 6-4, as he moves on to face Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic, the defending champ in Dubai, opened his defense with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Denis Istomin. Djokovic is seeking his fifth title in Dubai, where he lifted the trophy in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013.

"The atmosphere is great. I enjoy it," said Djokovic. "It's a beautiful stadium. I have had lots of success on this court, at this tournament, and I always look forward to coming back."

Also on Tuesday, it was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who was a 6-2, 6-4 first round winner over Victor Hanescu. Tsonga is coming off a runner-up showing at the Open 13 in Marseille, where he was beaten in the finals by Ernests Gulbis.

Not so lucky was Juan Martin del Potro, who was forced to retire from his first-round match due to a left wrist injury. Del Potro dropped the first set 7-6(3) to Somdev Devvarman when he conceded the match.

“My wrist is hurting a lot and everybody knows what happened to me four years ago with my other wrist,” said del Potro. “It was really tough to play today and I tried everything. But it's very difficult to play in these conditions, playing slices. I cannot be the player that I would like to be.”