Cilic rallies for win in Chennai

CHENNAI, India, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Defending champion Marin Cilic dropped a first-set tiebreaker Wednesday before collecting a second-round win at the $450,000 Chennai Open in India.

Cilic, seeded second this year, lost the first set when he fell 3-7 in the tiebreaker but then posted 6-3, 6-4 wins the next two sets in defeating Marcel Granollers. The match took 2 hours, 46 minutes as Cilic fought through three service breaks in winning the last two sets.

He advanced to the tournament quarterfinals, where he will go against Santiago Giraldo, who had a relatively easy 6-4, 6-2 second-round victory over Jan Hajek in 66 minutes.

Fourth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic piled up seven service breaks in a 6-2, 6-1 romp pasty Somdev Devvarman. Tipsarevic won 65 percent of the points when Devvarman served.

Wednesday's fourth match saw Thiemo De Bakker take out Robin Haase 6-3, 6-4. De Bakker earned a quarterfinal shot at Tipsarevic with the win.

The tournament continues through Sunday, when the Chennai Open champion will pick up $68,450.