DUBAI, Feb 26: Roger Federer seemed to have talked his way into a scare before beginning an up-and-down defence of his Dubai Open title with a recovery against an opponent even more popular than himself on Monday.

The Grand Slam record-holder had said before the match that often took him a while to suss out players he had never previously played — and sure enough he ran into trouble against the best player in the Arab world, Malek Jaziri, dropping the first set to loud cheers.

When Federer found a couple of extra gears, taking the next two sets in less than three-quarters of an hour, a 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 win brought him prolonged applause as well and he next faces Albert Montanes or Marcel Granollers.

“We were both not playing really well in the beginning. We were both missing a lot of first serves, or him in particular,” said Federer, who served 10 aces. “I think because I couldn’t take advantage, I went from ‘not so good’ to really ‘not so good’ _ and then he got better naturally. For me, it was important to sort of react and make sure I don’t panic.”

On a relatively low-key opening day, seventh seed Andreas Seppi beat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-3, 7-5 and Russian eighth seed Mikhail Youzhny overcame Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

First round: Somdev Devvarman (India) bt Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) 6-1, 6-4; 2-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Malek Jaziri (Tunisia) 5-7, 6-0, 6-2; 8-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) bt Blaz Kavcic (Slovenia) 1-6, 6-1, 6-3; Lukas Rosol (Czech Republic) bt Matteo Viola (Italy) 6-3, 7-5; Daniel Brands (Germany) bt Florent Serra (France) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; Roberto Bautista (Spain) bt David Goffin (Belgium) 6-2, 7-5; 7-Andreas Seppi (Italy) bt Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 6-3, 7-5.—Agencies