Janko Tipsarevic begins his Kuala Lumpur campaign against Italy's Flavio Cipolla.
Tipsarevic is still in with a very real chance of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals which would be an amazing achievement for the 27 year old who has never come close beforehand. However there's currently 545 points separating Tipsarevic and the man currently in eighth place - Tomas Berdych. It's not an insurmountable deficit particularly with two Masters 1000 events still to come but Tipsarevic could do with stealing a march on his rival this week.
Numerous pitfalls do await the Serb with fifth seed and former champion Nikolay Davydenko seeded to face him in the quarter-finals. However first up is the Italian Cipolla who's not to be taken lightly particularly on this surface.
Cipolla stunned fast rising Aussie teenager Bernard Tomic 6-2, 6-2 in the opening round on Wednesday. The sluggish hard courts suited Cipolla's cagey defensive game far more than the more expansive Tomic and the Italian eased to victory as Tomic self-destructed in a flurry of unforced errors.
Prediction: Tipsarevic will not find it easy but he'll pull through in three sets.
