Ninth seed Bencic, who won the title in 2019, will face recent Abu Dhabi champion Sara Bejlek next after her 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Bouzas Maneiro.
“Yes, I really do (enjoy playing here). I enjoy playing more at night. The ball doesn’t fly as much as in the day. The conditions are so different in the day and in the night,” she said after her win.
“The year that I won, I played every match during the night session. That’s why it’s my lucky charm. If the tournament director is listening, please let me play at night!”
Meanwhile, Raducanu made it back-to-back first-round exits in the Middle East after a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 loss to lucky loser Antonia Ruzic.
A week after retiring in the opening round of Doha against Camila Osorio, the Brit had a medical timeout after losing the first set, but battled back to take the second after her opponent served for the match.
Despite taking a 2-0 lead in the decider, Ruzic reeled off six straight games to win the contest, triumphing on her main-draw debut in Dubai.
Kalinskaya and Jovic move through
Anna Kalinskaya fought from a set down to see off last week’s Doha semi-finalist, Jelena Ostapenko, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, and Paula Badosa got her campaign up and running with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Katerina Siniakova.
Kalinskaya saved two break points when serving for the match in the final set, before eventually getting over the line on the first time of asking. She will take on Coco Gauff next.
Second seed Anisimova was handed a walkover into the next round after Barbora Krejcikova withdrew from their clash. She will face Janice Tjen, who continued to pile the misery on Leylah Fernandez with a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory.
Sixteenth seed and 18-year-old starlet Iva Jovic set up a tasty second-round encounter with Diana Shnaider after a 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 victory over Kamilla Rakhimova, while Emma Navarro secured a hard-fought 6-4, 7-5 win over Elena Gabriela Ruse in an hour and 38 minutes.
Jaqueline Cristian, Sorana Cirstea, Daria Kasatkina, and Clara Tauson all progressed with straight-set wins.
