Tuesday, September 26 2006 12:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: World number 11 Mario Ancic of Croatia opens his campaign in the inaugural ATP Mumbai Open with a fluent win over Igor Kunitsyn of Russia here on Monday (25 Sep, 2006).

Ancic, seeded second in the 380,000-dollar event and expects to clash with world number seven Tommy Robredo of Spain in the final, won 6-3, 6-2 at the Cricket Club of India courts.

The lanky Croatian breaks the 122nd-ranked Kunitsyn in the fourth game of the first set and then marks his supremacy by leading 4-0 and 5-1 in the second set.

Ancic, 22, returns to the circuit last week after a two-month absence due to a back injury by reaching the China Open final where he loses to Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

"It was not an easy outing in Beijing after coming back from injury but the good part was I got a lot of matches to play," he says.

"Now in Mumbai I will continue my rehabilitation and I hope I can go far." "It is very hot and humid here and these are tough conditions to play in. I may have won in straight sets but it was not an easy match." "There are no cheap points at this level, but I am happy I served and returned well and hope to continue in the same way," says Ancic.

Robredo, who turns out for Spain in the Davis Cup play-off against Italy at home in Santander over the weekend, will play his first match on Wednesday (27 Sep, 2006). Standing in the way of a possible Robredo-Ancic final is world number 13 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, Russian Davis Cup hero Dmitry Tursunov and the evergreen Carlos Moya of Spain.

Qualifier Gouichi Motomura of Japan produces a stirring comeback against Jasper Smit of the Netherlands before winning his opening round in three sets.

Motomura, who loses the first set, blanks his Dutch opponent in the second and then holds his nerve in the decisive tie-breaker to win 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5).

Stefano Galvani of Italy also comes from behind to oust Robin Vik of the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Sixth seed Bjorn Phau of Germany proves too strong for Indian wildcard Karan Rastogi in a 6-0, 6-3 victory on the centre court.

Qualifier James Auckland of England marches into the second round with a 6-1, 6-4 win over fellow qualifier Frank Moser of Germany.

The Mumbai tournament, which replaced the Vietnam Open on the circuit, is India's second ATP event after the season-launching Chennai Open in January.