Jannik Sinner is into the second round in Doha after the Italian eased past Tomas Machac in a 6-1 6-4 victory.
The world number two was playing his first match since his semi-final defeat at the Australian Open to Novak Djokovic.
However, Sinner was in no mood to show any vulnerability as he only lost six points on serve against Machac to reach the second round in Doha.
In his first appearance in Doha, Sinner had to deal with windy conditions as he moved into the second round.
After the match Sinner admitted the conditions were challenging but is happy to advance in Qatar, “Today was a little bit worse than yesterday,” Sinner admitted to the ATP website.
“But you have to adapt to every situation and condition on the court. We also played a couple of matches before, so I knew a little [about] what to expect. I felt good on court today. Physically I feel good. Every match is going to get tougher, so hopefully I will be ready for the next one.”
Next up for Sinner will be Alexei Popyrin with the head-to-head tied at 1-1 heading into the clash.
On day one there was a tough win for sixth seed Jakub Mensik after he battled past British qualifier Jan Choinski in three sets.
Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev also advanced with a straight sets win over Juncheng Shang while Arthur Fils edged past Kamil Majchrzak in three sets.
On day two Stefanos Tsitsipas, Australian Open champion Carlos Alcaraz and defending champion Andrey Rublev are all in action.
