Former Dubai Desert Classic winners Rory McIlroy and Thomas Bjorn have again showed their liking for the course to share the halfway lead.
Both players went one better than their opening-round 66s to shoot seven-under 65s on Friday and set the pace at 13-under.
But lurking ominously is German Martin Kaymer, who hit a hole-in-one to help propel him to within two strokes of the lead in a tie for fourth.
The world No.4 aced the 186-yard 7th to card a 67 and set up another potential duel with McIlroy following their one-two finish last year, which Kaymer won by a comfortable eight shots.
However, the 22-year-old Northern Irishman knows how to win in Dubai as well, having tasted victory at the tournament in 2009 - his first professional title.
World No.2 McIlroy turned in a bogey-free round and capped off his good work with back-to-back birdies on the 17th and 18th.
"I just kept picking up birdies along the way and it puts me in a great position. I feel a lot more confident than I did in Abu Dhabi," McIlroy said.
Bjorn, who won the title in 2001, also shot a similarly faultless 18 holes.
The Dane made two birdies on the front nine and scorched the back nine with five, in a bogey-free round of 65.
Overnight leader Rafael Cabrera-Bello followed up his first-round 63 with a 69 to sit in outright third at 12-under, while Frenchman Gregory Bourdy and Scotland's Scott Jamieson are level with Kaymer in equal fourth.
World No.3 Lee Westwood went to the clubhouse at 10-under in equal seventh after a seven-under 65.
Sitting alongside the Englishman are German Marcel Siem and Scotsman Stephen Gallacher.
Brett Rumford is the pick of the Australians on three-under in equal 39th position.
American John Daly had a mixed round, with a six on the long 10th and quadruple-bogey eight at the 12th putting the former British Open champion in severe danger of missing the cut, but he fought his way back to one-under.