Soderling will start his campaign against Robert Louis Ginepri of the US, who ended the year with a ranking of 100 and is not expected to be much of a hurdle for the top seed.
Top-seeded Robin Bo Carl Soderling of Sweden, who ended 2009 as world No.8, will be the firm favourite in the 2010 season-opening Aircel Chennai Open which starts from Monday at the SDAT Stadium in Nungambakkam.
Soderling will capitalise on the fact that he has already played in a tournament — Capitala Invitational event at Abu Dhabi — where he lost to Rafael Nadal 6-7(3-7) 5-7 in the final. The Swede also rides on a solid showing in 2009 where he entered the French Open final at Roland Garros after ousting defending champion Rafael Nadal.
Soderling will start his campaign against Robert Louis Ginepri of the US, who ended the year with a ranking of 100 and is not expected to be much of a hurdle for the top seed.
The top quarter of the first half also includes fifth-seeded Dudi Sela. The top half features third-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and seventh-seeded Michael Berrer of Germany.
The bottom half of the field comprises defending champion and second-seeded Marin Cilic. The 21-year-old from Croatia sees his first round match against Russian Igor Kunitsyn as key to his further progress in the tournament.
The other area of major interest in the second half of the draw is former world No.1 Carlos Moya of Spain, who is returning to competitive tennis after an injury break of eight months.
Moya will clash against fourth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic in the first round. “I missed the whole of last year due to health problems (injury) and feels great to be back on court especially in the venue where I have done well before,” said Moya, who has been training with Jose Clavet since November post surgeryrecuperation.
Somdev Devvarman, a wild card entrant along with compatriot Rohan Bopanna, is also in the bottom half of the draw and will play against Chennai Open veteran Rainer Schuettler in the first round.
“It’s going to be a tough match against Rainer and I have to really play well to advance. I’ve been practising on these courts for some time now and hope to gain from that experience. But practising during the day and night are so very different. I’ll be playing a doubles match on Monday under lights and expect that experience to be of some use when I meet Schuettler the day after in the singles draw,” Somdev said.
Order of play:
Centre court: M Cilic vs I Kunitsyn; C Moya vs J Tipsarevic, R Voest and S Lipsky vs S Devvarman and S Singh, R Ram vs T Bakker. Court no. 1: S Gruel vs J Hajek, M Kohlmann and R Schuettler vs M Granollers and S Ventura. Court no. 2: S Giralodo vs B Phau
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