Johanna Konta enjoyed a winning start on her Dubai debut, overcoming a stiff first-set challenge from Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova before advancing to the second round in straight sets on Monday night.

Konta, seeded No. 7 in Dubai, received a wildcard to enter the tournament. She was meant to make her first appearance in the Emirates last year but pulled out at the last minute with a foot injury.

The British No. 1 went down an early break to trail Pavlyuchenkova 2-4 but rallied back to win three games on the trot and lead 5-4.

That ninth game lasted 14 minutes and the pair pushed each other to a tiebreak before Konta pulled ahead.

The 26-year-old Konta, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, broke for a 2-0 gap in the second set before Pavlyuchenova took a lengthy medical timeout for a back issue.

It didn’t seem to help the Russian’s cause as Konta broke again for a 5-1 advantage and she sealed a 7-6 (2), 6-2 victory in one hour and 43 minutes to set up a second round against Daria Kasatkina.

“It was definitely going to be tricky. But I knew going into the match that it was going to be. She’s the kind of player that can play very hot and cold. When she’s on, she’s very on. I knew going into the match, actually the first set, she was very tricky to play,” said Konta.

“The conditions are quite fast as well, so it doesn’t lend itself to necessarily a little rhythm. I really just tried to have good tolerance out there.

“I was very clear of what I was trying to do out there, trying to have good acceptance that sometimes I wasn’t going to be able to do it, otherwise just try to fight, get as many balls back to ask her those questions, and when I had my opportunities to try to play the way I wanted to play.”