Soderling, Cilic set for India's ATP event

World number eight Robin Soderling and defending champion Marin Cilic will prepare for the tough season ahead at the 400,000-dollar ATP Chennai Open starting on Monday.

Soderling flies in for his maiden appearance in South Asia's only ATP event from Abu Dhabi, where he knocked out world number one Roger Federer in the semi-final of an exhibition tournament on Friday.

The Swede lost in Saturday's final to Rafael Nadal, who he beat at the French Open last year on the way to his first Grand Slam final.

Soderling is the top seed at the Chennai event, regarded as a warm-up for the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne on January 18.

The 25-year-old starts his campaign against 100th-ranked American Robby Ginepri, known for a stunning run at the US Open in 2005 when he reached the semi-finals before losing to Andre Agassi in five sets.

Second-seed Cilic won the Chennai and Zagreb titles in a superb start last year, before enduring a mid-season slump and finished 2009 ranked 14th.

"Going into the top 10 is obviously an aim, but I can't be thinking about it yet," the big-serving Croat said Sunday. "The start and the finish last year were great, but it could have been better in the middle of the year.

"I think I was not fit enough for the whole year. I have worked hard on my fitness in the off-season. The important thing is to play at least three or four weeks in a row without any problem."

Cilic, who won the Chennai Open last year by beating Indian wildcard Somdev Devvarman in the final, plays Russian Igor Kunitsyn in the first round.

Fourth seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia is favoured to meet Cilic in the semi-final of the bottom half of the draw which also includes German veteran Rainer Schuettler.

Soderling faces a possible quarter-final against fifth seed Dudi Sela of Israel, while his semi-final opponent could be the 21st-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

Spanish veteran Carlos Moya, a two-time Chennai Open champion and former world number one, returns to the circuit after a string of injuries restricted him to just four tournaments in 2009.

Moya, 33, dismissed talk of imminent retirement, saying he was raring to play competitive tennis again.

"I missed it for almost the whole of last year," said Moya, the former French Open champion who won the Chennai title in 2004 and 2005. AFP