DUBAI, 23 February 2005 — Marat Safin, the first big hero of the 2005 season, suffered a stunning let-down when he lost his first match since taking away the Australian Open title from Roger Federer last month.

Safin was beaten 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in the first round of Dubai Open, by Nicolas Kiefer, the unseeded German who produced flashes of the form of when he was world No. 4 several years ago.

Safin’s performance was not so greatly below par, but it was evident from the start that he was likely to be presented with a tough challenge from Kiefer, who served at his best, frequently volleyed resolutely and mixed up the paces of his drives cunningly from the baseline.

The crowd spent much of the first set chanting the popular Safin’s name, who was rarely able to get a handle on Kiefer’s second serve, the most obvious area of attack.

Safin’s demise came despite his having claimed the previous day that he had spotted a marginal weakness in Federer’s game, and thought he knew a way to beat him again.

Earlier, Feliciano Lopez of Spain set up a second-round meeting with Andre Agassi following a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan.

Lopez, who took Roger Federer to three sets in last year’s final, took command from the start by breaking the Asian number one in the opening game.

With Paradorn struggling to close out his service games, Lopez again capitalized for a 4-1 lead before bagging the set.

Sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko overcame Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-3 6-0, while Igor Andreev of Russia defeated Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli 6-3 7-5.

Veteran Spaniard Conchita Martinez rallied from a set down against Italian Roberta Vinci to set up a clash of generations at the WTA Qatar Open.

Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon winner, won 5-7, 6-0, 6-2 to earn a second round meeting with reigning French Open champion Anastasia Myskina of Russia who is going for a hat trick on Doha.

In other matches yesterday, Japan’s Ai Sugiyama defeated Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-3, Russian Maria Kirilenko ousted fellow qualifier Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-1 and Aussie Nicole Pratt subdued Tunisian Selima Sfar 7-5, 6-2.

Burgsmuller, Labadze Advance in Scottsdale

In Scottsdale, Arizona, sixth seed Irakli Labadze of Georgia reached the second round of the $355,000 ATP tennis tournament here Monday, rallying to beat Alex Kuznetsov in three sets.

Labadze dropped the first set against the American wild card but bounced back to post a 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory.

The only other seeded player in action on the opening day of play was No. 8 Lars Burgsmuller of Germany, who struggled before emerging with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan.

Burgsmuller’s fellow German Tommy Haas is the top seed here.

Coming off a loss to Max Mirnyi in the semifinals at Memphis on Saturday, Hass was to open his campaign here against wild card Donald Young of the United States.

The tournament also sees the 2005 ATP debut of 28-year-old Australian Mark Philippoussis, whose career nose-dived during a calamitous 2004 that included injury and personal problems.