Fish routs Beck in Dubai

Dubai - Mardy Fish eased into the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships, beating Andreas Beck of Germany 6-1, 6-1 on Monday.

The American has had a mixed year so far, losing in the second round of the Australian Open and beaten by 388th-ranked Albano Olivetti in the Marseille quarter-finals last week. He did, however, help the United States rout Switzerland 5-0 in the Davis Cup.

On Monday, Fish broke Beck twice in the first set to lead 4-0. In the second, he broke three times before closing the match in 57 minutes.

"Obviously it's nice to get through quickly early in the tournaments, but it gets tough from here on out, for sure," Fish said. " I've never played him before. I assume he's played better matches, for sure. But these courts suit me very well."

Fish replaced Andy Roddick as the highest-ranked American player last year, and he acknowledged the burden of that role weighed heavily last week at the Open 13.

"It certainly is different than in the past being the third or fourth or 10th American at times," he said. "The match that I played last week in Marseille bugs you a lot more than it used to because you don't want those guys to have that over you. You don't want those guys to beat you. You don't want to give players and your colleagues the idea that you're vulnerable as well.

Fish isn't happy about his 3-2 start to 2012 but relished his Davis Cup experience.

"I haven't had the best start to the year individually, but I must say the Davis Cup in Switzerland certainly made up for the disappointment in Australia. There's no doubt about that," he said. "Winning that tie and being a part of that with the guys, with captain (Jim) Courier, certainly doesn't feel like a bad start."

Novak Djokovic's brother, Marko, lost his first-round match to Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2. The 869th-ranked Djokovic was granted a wildcard into the tournament.