Top seed Grigor Dimitrov suffered a shock exit to veteran wildcard Malek Jaziri in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Championships.

The Bulgarian took a first-set lead but Tunisia’s Jaziri, ranked 117th in the world, rallied to beat the world number four 4-6 7-5 6-4.

Jaziri, 34, will now play Dutchman Robin Haase in the second round.

“You have days like this that you can’t really do much else,” said Dimitrov, runner-up in Rotterdam a week ago.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t play my game to the extent that I was looking for. My movement was not good over the court. I thought I served OK for a little bit, but then I lost my rhythm again.”

Jaziri said it was a “great feeling” to win his first match against a top-five player, adding: “I am really happy for that. I tried to fight every point since the beginning. It was so tight.”