Number two seed Marat Safin was beaten 7-6, 6-4 by Germany's Nicolas Kiefer in the opening round of the Dubai Open in Dubai, on Tuesday.
Playing his first match since winning the Australian Open, the Russian never found his rhythm against an opponent who also won their previous meeting at the Toronto Masters last year.
"I couldn't get comfortable on the court," said Safin, who refused to blame his defeat on the 10-day break he took after claiming his second Grand Slam title last month.
Kiefer, who often came to the net, mixed aggression and a deft touch to frustrate his opponent and although Safin served well at times it was not enough to give him any advantage.
Neither player managed to earn a break point as the first set went to a tiebreak, which Kiefer dominated.
The German then maintained his momentum as the second set got underway, breaking to love as Safin struck his first double-fault of the match to fall behind 1-0.
A second double-fault allowed Kiefer to break again to lead 5-2 but he failed to serve out the match, putting a forehand wide down the line on break point.
When the German served for the match a second time he was able to seal victory with his eighth ace of the match.
TOO FAST
"I found the court was a little bit too fast so I couldn't really time the ball. I was missing a lot and wasn't comfortable at any moment," added Safin.
Wind had covered the court with a fine layer of sand and Kiefer said that made the surface faster, to his liking.
"I didn't expect to play this good," he said. "I've been here since Wednesday and was playing well but the last two days I lost a little bit of my concentration, my focus."
Third seed Tim Henman survived a match point before overcoming fellow Briton Greg Rusedski 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
Henman, who went into the match with just four wins in his previous six visits to Dubai, dropped the first set and faced four break points at 5-5 in the second.
But in a high-quality battle between two serve and volleyers, Henman played his way out of trouble. He held off a match point at 6-5 in the tiebreak before claiming it 9-7.
A single break of serve then decided the third set, as Henman broke to lead 4-3 and a frustrated Rusedski received a warning for hurling his racket to the ground.
EAGER COMPETITOR
Spain's Feliciano Lopez lined up a second round clash with Andre Agassi by beating Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan.
Lopez, who took Roger Federer to three sets in the 2004 Dubai final, often looked the more eager competitor as he claimed a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
He discouraged Paradorn from the start, breaking to lead 1-0 after the Thai had led 40-0 and held four game points. Paradorn then failed to convert two more game points in the fifth as the left-handed Spaniard broke again to lead 4-1.
Lopez paid the price for failing to take advantage of a break point at the beginning of the second set, however.
Paradorn held and his aggressive serve and volley tactics paid off when he earned the only break of the set to lead 5-3 with a crosscourt forehand that clipped the net cord.
Lopez now faces Agassi remembering that when they last met in 2002, the Spaniard played the match of his life in front of an ecstatic home crowd before losing 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 in Madrid.
"I'm really looking forward to the match because the stadium will be full of people," said Lopez. "It's one of the matches that you always wanted to play."
In other early matches, former champion Fabrice Santoro of France was beaten 6-3, 6-0 by sixth seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, and Igor Andreev, also of Russia, defeated Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli 6-3, 7-5.
A third Russian, seventh seed Mikhail Youzhny, overcame Thomas Johansson of Sweden 7-6, 6-1.
