Wild card Sania Mirza overcame a sluggish start to beat Russian Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets and enter the second round of the USD two million Dubai Tennis Championships here.

The in-form Indian, who finished runners-up at last week's Pattaya Open in Thailand, defeated Makarova 7-5 6-2 after slogging it out for one hour and 27 minutes in the opening round of the hard court event. Sania will now be up against 16th seed Spaniard Kaia Kanepi in the second round.