Dubai: Seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany beat Dutch qualifier Thiemo De Bakker 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships at Dubai Tennis Stadium on Monday.
Games went with serve until the 30-year-old German broke in games seven and nine to win the first set.
The World No.26 then won the first five games of the second set before 25-year-old De Bakker attempted a comeback with three wins from game six, breaking his opponent in game seven.
Kohlschreiber finally finished off the World No.150 in game nine to secure a second round showdown with Italian World No.31 Andreas Seppi. Seppi had earlier staged a comeback to beat German World No.30 Florian Mayer in the first round 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
“I had a pretty good period from the end of the first set,” said Kohlschreiber. “But then at 5-0 he came back and hit some pretty good shots. That’s tennis. I think it was a good match in the end.”
Kohlschreiber’s head-to-head ratio with his second round opponent Seppi reads 4-3 in favour of the German, giving him hope of surpassing his previous best ever finish here of the second round.
“It’s going to be a tough one,” he added. “We’ve had a few pretty interesting matches and we are pretty equal. I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully I can make the quarters for the first time.”
