Daniil Medvedev was back in action for the first time since pulling out of the Qatar Open with food poisoning last week.

Daniil Medvedev advanced to the Dubai Tennis Championships second round with a straight-sets win over Jan-Lennard Struff.

It was a hard-fought victory for the former US Open champion, who prevailed 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in one hour and 44 minutes to set up a last-16 clash with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

Medvedev was forced to pull out of last week's Qatar Open after suffering a bout of food poisoning, but was back to winning ways at the event where he triumphed two years ago.

The world number six required just a single break of serve to draw first blood in the opening set, before maintaining his composure in a second-set tie-break to advance.

And top seed Medvedev underlined the importance of remaining focused on his own performance levels, with the likes of Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev having fallen at the first hurdle earlier in the day.

"The results don't matter in the big picture," he said. "You just need to play well and win your matches. I like tennis, I like to watch the matches, but [there was] no stress before coming on the court.

"The [illness] in Doha was not the best ending to the tournament, but I hope to try and get what I have been building since the start of the season here in Dubai or later. It was a good start."

Data Debrief: Dominant Daniil

Medvedev maintained his dominant head-to-head record over Struff, who he has now beaten in eight of their nine meetings.

The top seed was also on top with serve, hitting seven aces to his opponent's two, while he also saved all four break points he faced.