When Rafael Nadal preferred Chennai to Doha last year, most expected the Spaniard to walk away the winner. Despite coming into the new season with a formidable record – five wins against Roger Federer -- the odds-on favourite came a cropper to surprise champion Xavier Malisse in the semifinals.

The claycourter has preferred Chennai again to kick-start the 2008 season and the question doing the rounds on the eve of the $436,000 event at the Nungambakkam stadium was whether Nadal can break the Chennai Open jinx. If one goes by the saying 'third time lucky', Nadal, the top seed again, should be the last man standing. But then, Nadal never even made the final in his two previous visits to one of the most popular stops on the ATP Tour in Asia.

However, the world No 2 comes into the tournament as the favourite once again. In the 32-player draw, only Russian Mikhail Youzhny, the fourth seed here, has handed the top-seeded Nadal a surprise defeat this year, in the Dubai quarterfinals.

Winner of six titles in 2007, Nadal finished No 2 for the third year in succession. The Spaniard kick-starts his Chennai Open campaign against Mathieu Montcourt, ranked a lowly 123 in the world. But he brushed aside comments that the Frenchman will be easy picking.

“There are no easy matches, especially the first match of the year,” Nadal said. “Mathieu has improved his rankings and he is a good player, I have to play well to win. I need to play percentage tennis.”

“There are many good players this year. (Carlos) Moya, (Marcos) Baghdatis, (Mikhail) Youzhny, (Xavier) Malisse, anybody can win it. I don't know who is going to win, but it will be very close,” Nadal added.

Interesting it sure will be for third-seeded Moya is in the same half of the draw as Nadal. The two are seeded to meet each other in the semifinals. That's when Nadal will face his first stern test. From the bottom half, second-seeded Marcos Baghdatis and Youzhny are likely to make the last-four grade, that is if defending champion Xavier Malisse has other ideas.

The Belgian, who had Nadal's number in the semifinals last year, is unlikely to pose much of a threat this year. For, Malisse was sidelined for over six months due to a right wrist injury. On a comeback trail, the 27-year-old is due to meet Gilles Muller in the first round, but Youzhny too is in the same quarter.

Barring that slip up against Youzhny in Dubai, Nadal has an impressive record against the rest. Cyprus' Baghdatis, the other likely challenger, fell to Nadal thrice the previous season. A former Australian Open runner-up, the Cypriot was back to winning ways in 2007, clinching the Zagreb title and making two other finals.
As regards the Indian challenge, Prakash Amritraj, playing his first tournament after his wrist surgery, faces a qualifier, while Vishnu Vardhan meets France's Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the opener.

Indians crash out

All the four Indians in the fray crashed out in the second round of the qualifiers on Sunday. While Mustafa Ghouse retired after losing the opening set to Russian Igor Kunitsyn, Karan Rastogi, Kamala Kannan and Stephen Amritraj went down in straight sets to their respective opponents.

The seedings: Rafael Nadal (Esp) 1; Marcos Baghdatis (Cypp) 2; Carlos Moya (Esp) 3; Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) 4; Nicolas Mahut (Fra) 5; Jurgen Melzer (Aut) 6; Werner Eschauer (Aut) 7; Marc Gicquel (Fra) 8.
Results (qualifying): II round: Igor Kunitsyn (Rus) bt Mustafa Ghouse (Ind) 6-2, 3-0 (retd); Alexandra Kudryavtseva (Rus) bt Karan Rastogi (Ind) 7-5, 6-3; Harel Levy (Isr) bt Kamala Kannan (Ind) 6-2, 6-1; Stefano Galvani (Ita) bt Stephen Amritraj (Ind) 6-1, 6-1.