Richard opened up his campaign at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships with a win over Dmitry Tursunov on Monday.
Richard, seeded seven in Dubai, fired 11 aces and broke serve three times to book his spot 6-4, 6-4 in the second round where he will face another Russian, Igor Andreev.
Richard is making his debut in Dubai. He is also playing the doubles event with Fabrice Santoro, who scored an impressive victory over last year's runner-up Mikhail Youzhny earlier on Monday.
They play their first round match against Spanish duo Fernando Verdasco and David Ferrer, third on Court 1 tomorrow, starting not before 5pm.
