Gary Meenaghan adds:
5.05pm: Shuai Peng became the third Chinese player to secure a berth in the second round of the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships after holding off the challenge of American Bethanie Mattek-Sands to triumph 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 on Court 3 at the Aviation Club.
The 25-year-old from Hunan province coasted through the first set, before being broken twice in quick succession in the second. But the world No 39 rallied to close out the game and book herself a high-profile second-round tie with seventh seed Victoria Azarenka.
On Court 1, Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria beat Russian Ekaterina Makarova 7-5, 6-3. She faces two-time major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova tomorrow.
Ahmed Rizvi adds:
3.10 pm: Anna Chakvetadze brushed aside Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 6-3 to set up a second round clash with world No 2 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.
Chakvetadze took the first set 6-1, but dropped her serve in the opening game of the next. The Russian, however, won the next four games in a row before a struggling Hantuchova took medical time out.
The Slovakian returned to win the next two games, but Chakvetadze broke her again for a 5-3 lead and then served out for the match.
On Court 1, Kaia Kanepi, the 12th seed, cruised past Vera Dushevina 6-1, 6-2.
It is day two as the action from the women's Dubai Tennis Championships gets underway, and Ahmed Rizvi has the first update:
1.40 pm: Flavia Pennetta, the 11th seed and world No 16, needed just 53 minutes to cruise past former child prodigy Jelena Dokic 6-2, 6-2 into the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Women's Tennis Championship.
Pennetta broke Dokic's serve in the third and seventh games to wrap up the first set 6-2. Dokic, a former world No 4, started the second set with a double fault, dropped serve in the third and seventh and lost the second set by an identical margin.
Shahar Peer, the world No 11 and ninth seed here, also booked her place in the second round with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
... more to follow
