World number two Spaniard Rafael Nadal got a relatively easy draw, as he will start his season against 124th-ranked Frenchman Mathieu Moncourt in the opening round of the Chennai Open ATP event starting here at the SDAT Tennis Stadium from Monday.
Tournament’s second seed Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis will fight it out against Dutchman Robin Haase while defending champion Xavier Malisse of Belgium will play Giles Muller of Luxembourg in the uneven draws pronounced on Saturday.
Two-times Chennai open champion Spain's former World number one Carlos Moya is seeded third while Russian number two Mikhail Youzhny fourth.
Announcing the men’s singles main draw, Tournament director Fernando Soler said, “This year’s edition pitches in a fantastic field led by Nadal, Mikhail Youzhny, Carlos Moya and Baghdatis.”
"This is the first tournament for the new year so it will be tough until I find my rhythm, but I'm ready," Said World number 16 Baghdatis while talking to reporters. He also said that he is looking forward to a new start.
"I want to break into the top 10 this year and stay there," he added.
Indian wild card entrant Prakash Amritraj will face a qualifier in his opening match while the other Indian who got a wild card is Vishnu Vardhan, who is ranked 944, and will be tested against much stronger opponent 97th-ranked French Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Former Indian player Vijay Amritraj rated India’s chances quite tough in the tournament.
“Vishnu faces a real tough match in the first round against Vasselin. Both he and Prakash will have to play high-quality tennis,” said Amritraj.
Meanwhile, Mustafa Ghouse, Karan Rastogi, Kamala Kannan and Stephen Amritraj were the Indians who advanced to the second qualifying round on Saturday. The Chennai Open starts on December 31, 2007, with the singles and doubles final slated for January 6, 2008.
FIRST ROUND RESULTS (QUALIFYING)
Igor Kunitsyn (Rus) bt Sriram Balaji 6-2, 6-3
Mustafa Ghouse bt Ajai Selvaraj 6-1, 6-3
Karan Rastogi bt Divij Sharan 7-5, 4-6, 6-4
Alexandre Kudryavtsev (Rus) bt Akash Wagh 6-2, 6-0
Kristian Pless (Den) bt Vivek Shokeen 6-3, 6-4
Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) bt Vignesh Chandra Sekar 7-6(6), 6-1
Lovro Zovko (Cro) bt Sunil Kumar Sipaeya 7-6(1), 6-3
Denis Matsukevitch (Rus) bt Michael Ryderstedt (Swe) 6-4, 7-5
Harel Levy (Isr) bt Jaroslav Levinsky (Cze) 6-1, 6-1
Kamala Kannan bt Yuki Bhambri 7-5, 6-4
Michal Mertinak (Svk) bt Vijay Kannan ( Ind) 6-1, 6-4
Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Karunuday Singh 6-1, 6-2
Stefano Galvani (Ita) bt Harsh Mankad 6-1, 6-1
Stephen Amritraj bt Tushar Liberhan 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
David Martin (USA) bt Ranjeet Virali Murugesan 6-3, 6-0
Alexander Peya (Aut) bt Jim Thomas (USA) 6-3, 6-2.
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