Chennai: Croatian second seed Marin Cilic made a confident start to his Chennai Open title defence when he brushed aside Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-2 6-4 on Monday.
World number 14 Cilic needed an hour and 13 minutes to beat his 104th-ranked opponent. "I think I played a pretty good match. Most importantly my service was very good," Cilic told reporters. Serbian fourth seed Janko Tipsarevic overcame former world number one Carlos Moya 6-3 7-6 on the Spaniard's return to competitive tennis after injuries sidelined him for 10 months.
Big-serving Cilic breezed through the opening set after breaking Kunitsyn in the third and fifth games and quickly led 3-1 in the second. "I think he didn't have any break points in the match which shows that I was on top of him, especially in the first set," said Cilic, who beat Indian Somdev Devvarman in last year's final.
"In the second I got an early break and I was able to control from there," added Cilic, who reached the fourth round of the Australian Open last year.
Former French Open champion Moya was given a wild card at the event he has won twice and remains a crowd favourite. "I played well in the second set and feel that the lack of match practice is the only issue in my game," said 33-year-old Moya.
"I need to play more competitive tennis to see where I stand," the Spaniard said, when asked if retirement had crossed his mind. Swedish world number eight Robin Soderling, the top seed, will kick off his season on Tuesday with a first-round match against American Robby Ginepri.
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