Australian fifth seed Mark Philippoussis joined world number six Rainer Schuettler and Britain's Tim Henman as first round losers at the Dubai Open on Monday.
Philippoussis lost 6-2, 7-6 to Belgium's Olivier Rochus, Henman slumped to a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 defeat at the hands of Czech qualifier Tomas Zib while Germany's Schuettler was beaten 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 by compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber, another qualifier.
In the late match on centre court, Philippoussis, the world number 10 lost the first four games as Rochus served well and mixed up his game to keep the Australian guessing.
Despite a better performance from Philippoussis, especially with his serve finding its range, Rochus was able to hold off two set points to claim victory.
In an earlier match, sixth seed Henman, who had won the two previous meetings against Zib, looked uncomfortable from the beginning and lacked consistency in the face of an opponent who made few unforced errors, struck some blistering passing shots, served well and competed well from the baseline.
"All credit to Zib," said the 11th-ranked Henman. "He certainly won the match.
"He hit some great passing shots and was very, very solid from the baseline.
"I don't feel I was making mistakes. I was putting him under as much pressure as I could so I give him a lot of credit. He did play some very good tennis."
The Briton was forced to hold off a break point in the opening game, and then double-faulted to drop his serve and fall behind 3-2 before losing the set.
Henman took a more aggressive stance in the second set and broke Zib twice to level the match.
In the final set, the British number one broke to lead 2-1 but Zib fired a perfect pass down the line to level at 2-2 and while he failed to convert a match point at 6-5, the 149th-ranked Czech always held the advantage in the tie-break.
"I knew if I started well against him I would get some chances," said Zib, who also has career victories against Marat Safin and Juan Carlos Ferrero. "I knew Tim's game very well and that was the key of the match.
"I was making incredible passing shots (and) I think Tim was struggling a little bit with his own serve so he couldn't play every ball serve and volley, and I knew from the baseline he was weaker than at the net."
POOR YEAR
Third seed Schuettler, who lost his first three matches of the year before reaching the quarter-finals in Rotterdam two weeks ago, edged a tight first set against the qualifier.
But the 164th-ranked Kohlschreiber made the only break to take the second and, rallying steadily from the baseline, repeated the feat in the decider.
"I thought if I can hold my serve long enough I would get my chances on his serve because he's not the best server in the world," said 20-year-old Kohlschreiber, who travels without a conventional coach.
"At 5-4 in the second and the third sets he made a double-fault and then one more easy mistake each time."
Frenchman Gregory Carraz followed up his first round victory over Juan Carlos Ferrero in Marseille last week by trouncing local wild card Omar Bahrouzyan 6-0, 6-0 in just 43 minutes.
Bahrouzyan, the leading player in the United Arab Emirates, failed to win more than two consecutive points at any stage of the match and served eight double-faults.
Kuwaiti wild card Mohammed Al Ghareeb came tantalisingly close to becoming the first player from the Middle East to win a match on the ATP Tour when he held a match point in the final set tie-break before losing 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 to Dutchman Dennis Van Scheppingen.
