Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick Step) crossed the line first in a bunch sprint of the Tour's Hope Probe Stage, pipping David Dekker (Jumbo-Visma) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) at Al Marjan Island.
It is the first victory in 2021 for last year's Tour de France Green Jersey-winner, and the 50th of his professional career.
At the end of a stage marked by a breakaway effort from Frenchmen Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ) and François Bidard (AG2R-Citroën Team), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) retained the overall leader’s jersey by finishing safely in the bunch.
"I really wanted to win at the UAE Tour this year," said Bennett. "I've been very motivated.
"The team did such a good job so it was important to me that I repay that work by winning the stage today.
"I was pretty nervous before what was the first sprint of the season for myself. I had to remind myself that I just had to follow the guys.
"They did a fantastic job and made my work a lot easier. There are a lot of lead outs here and that made a pretty messy final.
"My legs were good at the end, I came from behind and I finished it off. It feels good to win in the first race of the year as I worked hard during the off season.
"I proved to myself today that I trained as well as I had to. It’s nice to reach fifty wins in my pro career.
"It's good to get it here as I had missed out on a stage win at the UAE Tour last year.”
