Calcutta: Swede world No. 9 Robin Soderling has been given top billing in the Aircel Chennai Open 2010, which will be held from January 4-10, at the SDAT Stadium.

The $450,000 tournament, in its 15th year, will see five top-50 players participating in the singles event.

Last edition’s winner Marin Cilic of Croatia (world No. 15) has been seeded second and he will be joined by Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland (world No. 21), Serbian Janko Tipsarevic (world No. 38) and Dudi Sela of Israel (world No. 43) in the draw. Other notable players in the field are Rajeev Ram, Rainer Schuettler, Robby Ginepri, Marcel Granollers and Michael Berrer amongst others.

Somdev Dev Varman and Yuki Bhambri may be awarded wildcards for the tournament.

“We are pleased that the event will continue to deliver quality players for the Indian crowd. Chennai Open will showcase a fascinating game of world-class tennis with top players and some exciting upcoming young talents slugging it out for the coveted titles,” said tournament director Fernando Soler in a statement.

Meanwhile, India’s 1966 Davis Cup team, which finished runner up after losing to Australia 1-4, will be honoured during the meet.

“The 1966 team reached the Davis Cup final for the first time. Subsequently India reached Davis Cup finals in 1974 and 1987. This year we will honour members of the 1966 team, while the 1974 and 1987 teams would be honoured in the next editions of the Open,” tournament organising committee chairman Karti Chidambaram announced Thursday.

Ramanathan Krishnan, Jaidip Mukerjea, Premjit Lal and SP Misra represented of the 1966 team. Krishnan and Mukerjea played all the five matches winning only the doubles against the Australian duo of John Newcombe and Tony Roche. Fed Stolle and Roy Emerson won all four singles with Mukerjea stretching Stolle to five sets in the reverse singles.