Dubai: Record five-time Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open winner Roger Federer wowed fans with a ‘hot dog’ shot in his 6-1, 6-4 first round win over Germany’s Benjamin Becker at Dubai Tennis Stadium on Monday.

Having broken Becker’s serve in games two and six to win the first set with ease, Federer then rose to the occasion with a ‘tweener’ mid-rally at 2-3 down. He won the point to bring take a 40-15 lead.

The ecstatic reaction from fans gave him the confidence he needed to hold serve and then break Becker in the next game, before marching on to book himself into a second round clash with either the Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek or the Michael Russell of the US.

“When you are young you just practice it against the wall for fun,” said Federer of his signature between-the-legs move. “Maybe in a match you get the opportunity, but it’s very rare.

“If he doesn’t get my volley we are not going to see it, so I’m happy he got the ball back the way he did and it was rare for me to hit that shot as a lob, so I was very excited about that.”

The world No.8, who has won a record 17 Grand Slams, added he was happy with the confidence he showed.

“I’m very happy with my performance,” he said. “With first rounds you never know what to expect, but I played some good shots with an attacking style of tennis, which is how I want to play.

“You’ve got to be a little confident to play an attacking style of tennis. I started well and that is important in quicker conditions like here in Dubai.

“If you are feeling well at the baseline you can get the opportunity to come in — you don’t get that if you are not feeling so great.

“I’m happy with the way I’m turning things around for myself. I’m very happy with the first round and I hope I can keep it up.”

In another first round match on Monday, eighth seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia beat Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko 7-5, 6-1 to set up a second round encounter with the winner of Tuesday’s match between Lukas Rosol and Daniel Brands.

After struggling to break down Lacko, who is f 72 positions below him in the world rankings, the world No.29 said he wasn’t happy with his game.

“I had quite a few chances but was making a lot of errors,” Tursunov said. “I don’t think it was a beautiful match in terms of shot making, especially the first set.

“It’s hard to complain when you win, but I think there are quite a few things that I could have done better.”

Italy’s Andreas Seppi fought back to beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 to book his second round slot against the winner of seventh seed German Philipp Kohlschreiber’s match with Dutch qualifier Thiemo de Bakker.

“From 4-1 down in the third I just tried to keep fighting,” Seppi said. “I didn’t have 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.”

Elsewhere, Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut beat Romania’s Adrian Ungur 6-1, 6-3 to progress to a second round match with either No.1 seed Novak Djokovic or Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.