Kiefer, a wildcard entry into Los Angeles, said beating the Russian on the main stadium at the UCLA tennis facility will boost his confidence as he tries to get his world ranking back to a respectable number.

"On the first hardcourt match for a long time, the most important thing is to win. It doesn't matter how you do it, you just have to fight," said the 409th ranked Kiefer.

Taking the court after Kiefer in the night match was Russian third seed Marat Safin who beat Australian Chris Guccione 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/) to reach the second round.

Kiefer needed just one hour, six minutes to dispatch the 22-year-old Gabashvili who is ranked 95th in the world.

Kiefer advances to the second round where he will face either David Nalbandian or Igor Kunitsyn.

Kiefer has more aces (7-3) than Gabashvili and less double faults (1-3) and won 89 percent of his first serve points.

Kiefer, who turned 30 earlier this month, has never won in Los Angeles but he has played well in the past. He lost in the 2004 final to countryman Tommy Haas.

"It is nice to come back to a place where you always play good," he said.

Since injuring his wrist at the French Open in June 2006, Kiefer has had two operations to try and fix the nagging problem.

"My fitness is good I just need a few wins and everything will be in a good way," Kiefer said.

France's Fabrice Santoro, who captured his first ATP title in five years on Sunday, pulled out of the Los Angeles tournament on Monday complaining of fatigue.

The 34-year-old Santoro defeated countryman Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-4 to win the 416,000 dollar Hall of Fame Tennis Championship in Newport, Rhode Island on the weekend. It was his first win since he triumphed in Dubai in 2002.

In other first round action on Monday, South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik rolled over American Kevin Kim 6-3, 6-2 and Russian Dmitry Tursunov breezed past Thai Danai Udomchoke 6-1, 6-4.