By N. Ananthanarayanan
Chennai, India - World number two Rafael Nadal made a losing start to his new season on Monday when he and his partner Bartolome Salva-Vidal were defeated in their opening doubles match at the Chennai Open.
The French Open champion dropped serve once in each set as the 2007 finalists went down 6-4 6-4 against the first-time pairing of Cypriot Marcus Baghdatis, the singles second seed, and Marc Gicquel of France.
Defending champion Belgian Xavier Malisse returned after an injury-marred 2007 to ease to a 6-4 6-3 win over Gilles Muller of Luxembourg. Malisse upset top seed Nadal in the singles semi-finals last year.
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The 27-year-old Belgian grabbed two early titles in 2007, in Chennai and Delray Beach, before a wrist injury sidelined him for six months and he dropped out of the top 100.
On Monday he showed his class against the error-prone Muller in the first-round clash between unseeded rivals lasting just under two hours.
Malisse broke the big-serving Muller's serve in the opening game before serving out the first set in 35 minutes.
He again snatched an early break in the second set to lead 4-2 and eventually sealed the match when Muller, serving to stay in the game, netted a return on the first matchpoint.
"It is nice to start the year with a win," a beaming Malisse told reporters. "Especially playing after a long time, it is good for confidence in the coming rounds."
Malisse played with a finger taped as he is recovering from a tendon injury suffered six weeks ago.
"My match fitness will slowly improve," he said. I'll be a little sore, but that will go."
Sixth seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria defeated Paul Capdeville of Chile 6-2 6-4 while Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin thrashed Indian national grasscourt champion Vishnu Vardan 6-1 6-2.
Russian number two Mikhael Youzhny, the fourth seed, was due to play Jiri Vanek of Czech Republic later on Monday in another feature first-round match.
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