• Dubai Tennis Championships

Davydenko battles past Serra

Nikolay Davydenko was made to work hard by Florent Serra © Getty Images

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• Gallery: Dubai Tennis: Day Two

Day Two gallery

Nikolay Davydenko survived a real scare before getting the better of Florent Serra in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

The in-form Russian was not at his best for much of his 6-7(5) 6-4 6-1 win, but he found a way of edging over the line.

Davydenko saved a set point on his own serve in the first set at 6-5 down with a thunderous forehand onto the baseline and took the set into a tie-break, but his forehand broke down as he sent the ball wide and long on a number of occasions as the Frenchman took the breaker 7-5.

Serra had two break points in game nine of the second set but big hitting from the back of the court got Davydenko out of trouble and great scrambling from the Russian one game later saw him secure the second set.

Davydenko backed up his strong play at the end of the second set with an immediate break at the start of the third and went into overdrive, putting Serra under pressure with strong hitting on both wings.

The Frenchman had no answer and bowed out with a whimper after promising so much for the majority of the match.

Fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga moved through to the second round after his first-round opponent Michael Llodra retired at the beginning of the second set. Llodra, who won a fourth career title at the Marseille Open on Sunday, was more than a match for the world No. 1, serving 11 aces to force the first set into a tie-break.

Llodra took a 3-0 lead in the tie-break and was on course to win the opening set, but Tsonga battled back from set point down to win the gruelling tie-break 11-9. Confusion then reigned as Tsonga took a bathroom break before returning to court to discover his opponent had withdrawn. Tsonga will now play Croatian Ivan Ljubicic for a place in the quarter-finals.

Marin Cilic lived up to his status as No. 6 seed with a 6-2 6-4 win over Arnaud Clement in the first round of the Dubai Tennis Championships. Two break points yielded two breaks of serve in the opening set as Cilic asserted himself from both the back of the court and at the net.

Marin Cilic was too strong for Arnaud Clement in Dubai © Getty Images

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Cilic secured an early break at the start of the second set and Clement, bedecked in a magenta bandana and sunglasses, simply had no answer to the Croat's superior play. Clement's cause was not aided by making sloppy mistakes such as leaving the ball and seeing it bounce on the baseline.

Clement dug in as the second set wore on and secured three break points at 5-4 down, but two aces and a huge inside-out forehand averted the danger and Cilic went on to wrap up the match in an hour and 31 minutes to set up a meeting with Stefan Koubek in round two.

Seventh seed Mikhail Youzhny recovered from a set and a break down to beat world No. 60 Lukas Lacko 6-7(3) 7-6(5) 6-2. Lacko was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but Youzhny held his nerve to fight back and move through to the second round.

The Russian broke early in the opening set, but Lacko battled back to take the set to a tie-break, and showed real fight as he won six points on the trot to go 6-2 up and win the tie-break 7-3.

In a mirror image of the first set, it was Lacko who got the early break, but serving for the match at 5-4, the Slovakian wobbled and Youzhny pounced and broke back to force another tie-break. As the momentum swung in favour of Youzhny, the No. 7 seed stormed to a 4-0 lead in the final set, and there was no way back for the plucky Slovakian.

Janko Tipsarevic edged his first-round clash with Andreas Seppi, with the Serb securing a 7-6(4) 7-5 win and he will face Andy Murray in round two. Tommy Robredo took just 45 minutes to send Julien Benneteau crashing out, winning 6-2 6-1. Benneteau, finalist in Marseille last week, won just 24 points.

Somdeev Devvaraman progressed to the second round with a 6-4 7-5 win over Marco Chiudinelli, while Michael Berrer battled to a 6-4 7-6(3) win over Sergiy Stakhovsky. Bjorn Phau was handed an easy route into the second round as he held a 3-0 lead when Mohammad Ghareeb retired.

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