Second seed and defending champion Marin Cilic made a promising start to his title defence with a straight sets win over Russian Igor Kunitsyn to reach the second round on the 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, being played here in Chennai, India.

Cilic, who won the title last year by beating Indian sensation Somdev DevVarman, looked equally impressive today when he registered the 6-2, 6-4 win over the Russian in just 73 minutes of play.

Fourth seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic also made it to the next round of the event with his 6-3, 7-6(2) victory over former champion and wild card entrant Carlos Moya. The former French Open winner has been a champion in Chennai twice (2004-05), and was granted a wild card into the main draw of the event due to his colorful resume.

Other winners of the day included Santiago Giraldo, Jan Hajek and Thiemo De Bakker, who took out eighth seed American Andy Ram 6-1 6-1 in just under an hour.