THE Asian swing of the ATP Tour has been hit by withdrawals but fans in Kuala Lumpur can still expect an exciting week ahead in the RM3 million Malaysian Open.
The tournament, at Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil, may have lost its defending champion Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and top seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic but this year's player list looks good with other top draws.
Spain's World No 12 Nicolas Almagro, Serbia's Viktor Troicki, Janko Tipsarevic and Austria's US Open doubles champion Jurgen Melzer are the top four seeds in the tournament. All four received first round byes.
Almagro, a clay court specialist with 10 career titles, will be hoping to clinch his first indoor hard court tournament in Kuala Lumpur.
The top seed faces either Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin or compatriot Albert Ramos in the second round while
Troicki, the second seed, takes on either Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin or a qualifier.
Troicki hopes to continue his winning streak in Asia with a third straight title. He won the singles in Bangkok in 2009 and followed up with a win in doubles last year.
Tipsarevic, a Davis Cup champion, has not won a title despite reaching four career finals while Melzer will be the one to watch as the 30-year-old is brimming with confidence after victory in doubles at the US Open.
The most anticipated match in the first round, however, is between Russia's 2009 champion Nikolay Davydenko and the United States' Ryan Harrison.
Davydenko, the World No 31, has won an outdoor title in Munich while Harrison, the World No 82, has reached two semi-finals this year. It will be their first meeting on the tour.
"It will be a difficult match as Davydenko will want to maintain Russia's stranglehold in this event," said Harrison yesterday.
Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and Alex Bogom olov Jr. of the United States face each other in the first round with the former winning their only previous encounter five years ago.
The match between two wild cards -- Australia's World No 137 Matthew Ebden and Belgium's World 223 David Goffen is the other anticipated clash on the cards.
The singles and doubles main draw start tomorrow.
Meanwhile, none of the local players won their first round qualifying match on Saturday.
Si Yew Ming, the national champion, played respectable tennis but still lost 6-4, 6-2 to World No 558 Stanislav Poplavskyy.
Compatriot Ariez Elyaas Deen Heshaam fizzled out after a good opening set in his 6-4, 6-0 defeat to China's Zhang, Ze.
Ahmad Deedat Abdul Razak and Wan Abdul Muiz Wan Abdul Aziz were also outclassed by experienced opponents.
