Chennai, Jan 10: Somdev Devvarman will battle it out with Croatia's third seed Marin Cilic in the summit clash of the Chennai Open as he reached his maiden ATP tour event final after getting a walkover from fifth seed Rainer Schuettler in the semifinal here today.
The Germany's world number 33 pulled out from the event due to a wrist injury.
Cilic stormed into the final after defeating eighth seed Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-4 6-3 in his semifinal match of the USD 450,000 hard court tournament.
Somdev is first Indian player to reach the final of the Chennai Open, now into its 14th edition.
India's doubles ace Leander Paes had reached the semifinals of Chennai Open in 1998.
Somdev is also the only second Indian player in recent times to make the final of an ATP Tour event.
Prakash Amritraj had reached the final of Hall of Fame Tennis championship in Newport, United States, in July last year when he lost to Fabrice Santoro.
Somdev made full use of his wild card, upsetting players like Croatia's world number 25 Ivo Karlovic and former world number one Carlos Moya en route to the semifinal.
Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic is the only player to win Chennai Open as a wild card in 2006.
He was given the top billing at that time but made the main draw of 32 as a wild card due to last minute withdrawal of the then world number two Rafael Nadal (Spain).
The new Indian tennis sensation knows that it would be tough to bring home the title.
"Tomorrow is going to be very tough. I have my work cut out. Cilic is really playing very good. I am going to save my energy for tomorrow's final tie and I want you guys to save your energy to cheer me loudly," he said. - Agencies
Jan 10, 2009