Chennai, India – World No. 9 Janko Tipsarevic opened his 2013 season with a second-round win Wednesday at the ATP World Tour's season- opening Chennai Open.
The second-seeded Tipsarevic cruised past Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals at SDAT Tennis Stadium. The Serbian star was last year's Chennai runner-up to Canadian slugger Milos Raonic.
In other second-round action on Day 3, fourth-seeded Swiss banger Stanislas Wawrinka handled German qualifier Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-4, 6-3, Slovenian Aljaz Bedene upended sixth-seeded Dutchman Robin Haase 7-5, 6-3, and eighth- seeded Japanese Go Soeda outlasted India's own Prakash Amritraj 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-4. Wawrinka titled here two years ago and was the Chennai runner-up in 2010.
In some more second-round play on Thursday, top-seeded world No. 6 Tomas Berdych will take on Indian wild card and 2009 Chennai runner-up Somdev Devvarman and third-seeded Croat Marin Cilic will meet Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky. The two-time Chennai champion Cilic beat Devvarman in the final here four years ago.
This event serves as a hardcourt tune-up for the Australian Open, which will commence January 14.
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