Seeded trio Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych all made it through their Dubai Tennis Championships openers on Tuesday to join defending champion Roger Federer in the second round.
Top seed Djokovic proved too strong for Canadian Vasek Pospisil as the world number one made a winning start to his quest for a 50th ATP title.
In his first outing since winning the Australian Open, Djokovic showed few signs of rustiness as he moved past Pospisil 6-4 6-4 to maintain his 100 per cent record against the world number 63.
Murray - seeking to progress further than his quarter-final effort in Rotterdam earlier this month - survived 11 Gilles Muller aces in his 6-4 7-5 victory, while Berdych made the most of six Jeremy Chardy double faults to win 7-6 (7-2) 6-4.
"I'm much more confident in my body and in my game," explained 2012 finalist Murray.
"There's still things I can do better, but I think even last year - if I was playing well I was still doubting a lot of things, I didn't have confidence in my body or in my game.
"So even when I was playing well I didn't think I was so yeah I feel much better in this stage of the year than I did at this stage last year."
Eighth seed David Goffin suffered an upset against experienced world number 62 Marcos Baghdatis - going down 6-2 7-5 in 71 minutes after the Belgian saved just one of seven break points.
Goffin suffered a woeful first set as he was broken in all four service games with wildcard Baghdatis able to see out the victory and maintain his 100 per cent record over the 24-year-old.
Spanish pair Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco are safely into the second round after straight-set wins over James Ward and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez respectively.
Having seen off his compatriot 7-5 6-1, Verdasco will face Federer in the second round, having never beaten the Swiss in six attempts.
Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky came from a set down to see off Lukas Rosol for the second time this month. Simone Bolelli and Roberto Bautista-Agut eased to straight-set victories over Lucas Pouille and Dominic Thiem respectively.
Qualifier Marsel Ilhan prevailed against wildcard Alexander Zverev 6-1 7-6 (7-4) before lucky loser Borna Coric came through a testing encounter with Malek Jaziri 5-7 6-3 6-3.