Chennai: The top-ranking Indian Saketh Myneni will take on 2008 Chennai Open winner Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the opening round, while last year quarter-finalist Ramkumar Ramanathan, who received a wild card entry , would face a qualifier at the 22nd edition of the Chennai Open.
Top seed Maric Cilic gets a bye in the first round, along with Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut , third seed Albert Ramos Vinolas and the Slovak Martin Klizan. Klizan would face the winner from the battle between Aljaz Bedene and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez which would be the match to look out for in the first round.
Last year’s losing finalist Borna Coric will also be playing a qualifier and will look to take away the 250 points he missed last time. Ramkumar would not be taking it easy as the qualifier he would be facing would have three matches under his belt. The Indian, though, said he would be aggressive and that there was no pressure on him.
In the doubles draw, the 43-year-old Leander Paes who has partnered with Brazilian Andre Sa will battle it out against Indians Purav Raja and Divij Sharan.
Meanwhile, the number one pairing of Israeli Jonathan Elrich and American Scott Lipsky would face the duo of American James Cerretani and Austrian Philipp Oswald.
Myneni and Ramanathan who have partnered for the doubles will have to work hard to progress to the next round as they have been drawn to meet the pair of Belgian Steve Darcis and Frenchman Benoit Paire.
Other Indians in the fray are the pair Vishnu Vardhan and N. Sriram Balaji who till take on the Swedish pair of Johan Brunstrom and Adreas Siljestrom. Rohan Bopanna and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan will face the team of Croatian Nikola Mektic and Brazlian Marcelo Demoliner.
Tournament director, Tom Annear said, “There is very good depth in the draw. With players like Cilic and Agut, who are part of the top 20 in the world and a young bunch of players who are part of the next generation of stars, we can expect some good tennis for the next one week.”
