Roger Federer of Switzerland returns the ball to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia during their Dubai Open match in Dubai yesterday. (Reuters)

Reuters/Dubai

Roger Federer eased to a 16th consecutive victory over Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny to begin his quest for a seventh title at the Dubai Championships yesterday.
The Swiss world number two looked revitalised during a 6-3 6-1 stroll—his first competitive match since a surprise third round defeat by Andreas Seppi at the Australian Open.
Only two head-to-head winning streaks are longer than Federer’s over Youzhny—Ivan Lendl’s against Tim Mayotte (17) and Rafa Nadal’s recently broken one against Tomas Berdych (18) -- and Youzhny looked resigned to his fate.
Federer banged down eight aces during a 56-minute exhibition and will face the winner of an all-Spanish clash between Fernando Verdasco and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in round two.
Federer left nothing to chance in the quick-hit win, making sure he did not get too careful in his tennis - a mistake he made in his shock third-round Australian Open loss to Andreas Seppi a month ago.
“The last thing I want to do is lose back-to-back matches playing careful. You cannot leave it up to the other guys sometimes if you are going to win or lose,” said the second seed.
“Over the years I have won my biggest matches by playing on my terms, and you can’t always do it. In the best of three on quick court sometimes you just can run away with the score; that’s where maybe a bad five to ten minutes can cost you the match.
“It was close in that first set. We were both trying to find our range. I’m happy I didn’t start to play too careful after it, because it is tough to play here in Dubai with the quick conditions.”
Number 52 Youzhny, who is playing Dubai for the 13th straight year, lost the 2007 final to Federer and the 2010 title match to Novak Djokovic. He has won only four sets against Federer in their long rivalry.
Federer is looking to earn seven or more titles in his third tournament after seven each at Wimbledon and Halle.
The loss was Youzhny’s fifth to Federer in Dubai.
Federer’s win was his seventh of the season against one defeat. He will learn his next opponent Tuesday night when Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez meet.
Latvian Ernests Gulbis lost his fifth straight match of the season, going down to Uzbek Denis Istomin 7-5, 6-2.
Gulbis has ridden the ranking roller coaster through out his career, reaching the 2014 French Open, where he lost to Djokovic. But he then had a modest remainder of 2014, with only two semi-finals and a quarter to his credit.
So far in 2015, the number 13 has yet to win a match after finishing in the top 20 for the first time in his career last November, winning a career-high 41 matches and lifting two titles.
“I don’t know what’s going on, I’m not in good form right now. I’m not feeling my shots at all. I have no timing. In practice I have been playing worse than in the match,” said Gulbis.
Istomin, ranked 65th, had lost both of his previous matches to the patchy Gulbis, who freely admitted he preferred nightlife to practise sessions in his early days.
Kazakh Andrey Golubev beat Fabrice Martin of France 7-5, 6-4 and awaits the winner from top seed Novak Djokovic and Canadian Vasek Pospisil.
Portugal’s Joao Sousa defeated only the third Irishman to ever play an ATP match since records began in 1990 by beating James McGee 6-1, 6-2.
The pair were longtime practice partners in Barcelona in their early days.
Nadal drops out of ATP top three
Rafael Nadal has slipped a place to four in the latests ATP Rankings published yesterday after losing his first semi-final on clay in 12 years in Rio. The third spot previously occupied by the Spaniard is now filled by Andy Murray, last in action when losing in the quarter-finals in Rotterdam 10 days ago.
This is the first time Nadal has not figured in the top three since August, 2013. Novak Djokovic, who heads the seeds at this week’s Dubai Open, retains his steely grip on the rankings ahead of Roger Federer.