Two-time former singles champion and world No 15 Marin Cilic and Stanislas Wawrinka are set to take part in the Chennai Open, to be held here from Dec 31 to Jan 6. The confirmation from these two top-20 players along with participation from world No 6 Tomas Berdych and No 9 Janko Tipsarevic has ensured that the tournament will have a strong field.

Croatia’s Cilic won the singles titles here in 2009 and 2010. He was in the 2012 field as the fourth seed but suffered a tendon injury, which ruled him out of the tournament.

HIL players’ auction
Chennai: As many as 24 Australian players, including all 16 members of the squad that won bronze in the London Olympics earlier this year, are among the 91 overseas players who have signed up for the Hockey India League players’ auction to be held next month.

Pakistan will have the second highest number of players in the auction at 15, followed by Spain (10).

Harika to meet Zhao
Khanty Mansiysk (Russia): Grandmaster D Harika will lock horns with Zhao Xue of China in the quarterfinals of the World Women’s Chess Championship underway here.

Having reached the last eight stage, Harika meets the biggest challenge in the championship and if she wins this match she can prove to be a very tough competitor.

Vaibhav excels
New Delhi: Vaibhav Rawal’s third successive century helped Delhi U-25 team reach 580 in their CK Nayudu Trophy match against Maharashtra. Maharashtra had made 295 in the first innings.  Varun Sood too made a hundred.