Schuettler and Al Aynaoui make the cut

Dubai: Last year's semifinalist Rainer Schuettler of Germany and Younes Al Aynaoui of Morocco eased into the main draw of the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open.

Schuettler controlled proceedings from the start to beat fifth seed Konstantinos Economidis 6-2, 7-5, while Al Aynaoui - who had to go through the qualifiers after being denied a wild card entry - did just enough to defeat Goerge Bastl of Switzerland.

Schuettler was off to an early 3-1 lead with a break in the third game. He was in complete control, serving out for the set in half-an-hour to win 6-2.

The second set was evenly balanced with both players holding serves, till Schuettler got a crucial break in the 11th game to go 6-5 clear. The German then served out the set and the match 7-5 to book his place in the main draw.

"It was not easy out there. He is close to being a top-100 player and one never knows what they are capable of," Schuettler told Gulf News after spending close to two hours on court.

The other two slots in the main draw were booked by Austrian Olivier Marach and Andrea Seppi of Italy with convincing wins.

Seppi beat Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-2, 6-4, while Marach powered past India's Rohan Bopanna 6-4, 6-2.