Ancic, seeded second in the 380,000-dollar event and expected to clash with world number seven Tommy Robredo of Spain in the final, won 6-3, 6-2 at the Cricket Club of India courts.

The lanky Croatian broke the 122nd-ranked Kunitsyn in the fourth game of the first set and then marked his supremacy by leading 4-0 and 5-1 in the second set.

Ancic, 22, returned to the circuit last week after a two-month absence due to a back injury by reaching the China Open final where he lost to Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

Robredo, who turned out for Spain in the Davis Cup play-off against Italy at home in Santander over the weekend, will play his first match on Wednesday.

Standing in the way of a possible Robredo-Ancic final are world number 13 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, Russian Davis Cup hero Dmitry Tursunov and the evergreen Carlos Moya of Spain.

Qualifier Gouichi Motomura of Japan produced a stirring comeback against Jasper Smit of the Netherlands before winning his opening round in three sets.