DUBAI (AFP) Novak Djokovic began his bid to make his first successful title defence on the ATP Tour with a weird wobble and an uncomfortable feeling which he described, after his 6-4, 6-4 win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the Dubai Open, as sweaty. The problem was that the match had appeared all but over when the world number two from Serbia quelled the fluent Spaniards best efforts and advanced to 5-0 in the second set. Then, against the odds, Garcia-Lopez broke back twice and looked capable of extending the contest. But it was all my fault, you know - I think I lost focus. The champion was being very self-critical. Before that he had accelerated from 4-4 in the first set with a winning sequence of seven games in which he began to be consistently too forceful for Garcia-Lopez. It indicated that, even though he had been unwell during the Australian Open last month, he may now be in decent shape, and will be a strong favourite to make further progress when he takes on his compatriot Viktor Troicki for a place in the last eight. Another front runner for the title, Andy Murray had the most unusual match of the opening day, despite the routine-sounding 6-2, 6-3 win over Igor Kunitsyn, a Russian qualifier ranked only just inside the top 100. The second game lasted fully 25 minutes and contained 14 deuces before Murray sneaked it - and it was billed by the tournaments PR as the second longest game in the ATP World Tours history, though this proved difficult to confirm. Murray appeared to have one or two physical issues, perhaps with his groin and a knee in his first match since playing Roger Federer in the Australian Open final three weeks ago. My ankle was sore at the start of the match and I was really out of breath early on. I have not practised that much, or trained that much and there were a lot of long rallies, said Murray. You dont think that at 1-0 it could make a huge difference to the match, but I think it did. Ive never played a game like that before. It took only two matches for the first seed to go out. Gilles Simon, the former world number six, still has not won a match on the tour for three and a half months after suffering a straight games defeat to Marcos Baghdatis, the former Australian Open finalist. Simon, who is trying to recover from a long-lasting knee injury, lost 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 in a one-hour, 42-minute match full of long rallies. Baghdatis did well, for he was suffering from a high fever. He rallied consistently and served aggressively and was pleased to have caused the first seeding upset of the tournament. Simons problem is that he has a tendon which is not regenerating, and after a three month lay-off has been practising for just 20 days. He has been told by the doctor that it is fine to play unless he feels pain in the knee again, and then he should stop immediately. It is difficult to know what will happen to it. But I must try to play, Simon said.