Chennai, India (My Sportsbook) - Rising 20-year-old Croat Marin Cilic and Wimbledon semifinalist Rainer Schuettler were a pair of first-round winners Monday at the ATP World Tour's season-opening Chennai Open. The 6-foot-5 third-seeded Cilic handled Spaniard Alberto Martin 6-4, 6-4, while the fifth-seeded Schuettler, of Germany, held off Indian wild card Prakash Amritraj 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 on the hardcourts at SDAT Tennis Stadium. Eighth-seeded Spaniard Marcel Granollers also reached the round of 16 with a 6-4, 7-5 decision against capable Korean Hyung-Taik Lee. Additional Day-1 wins came for Czech wild card Lukas Dlouhy, Israeli Dudi Sela and Germans Simon Greul and Bjorn Phau. Russian Mikhail Youzhny upset Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal in last year's Chennai finale, but neither player is competing here this year. This week's top seed is Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who will open his stay against Austrian Daniel Koellerer. The winner of this Australian Open tuneup will collect $73,000. |
