Czech Novak is the top seed at Milan Indoors

Ivanisevic, the 2001 Wimbledon champion, got a wildcard to play in Milan. He takes on Czech Bohdan Ulihrach in the first round tonight.

“I don’t expect to play my best tennis tomorrow. I’ll try to take it easy,” said Ivanisevic, who has recovered from shoulder surgery after a long rehabilitation. He has been training hard in the last three months for his comeback.

“Whatever happens I’ll try to enjoy it,” Ivanisevic said.

He added he planned to enter the ATP tournaments in Rotterdam and Marseille after Milan. In the longer term he hoped to play another Wimbledon in good health and the Olympic Games for the fifth time.

Novak, who’s ranked 16th in the ATP lists, takes on Dutch Raemon Sluiter in first-round action on carpet as he goes after his fifth career ATP title.

The tournament began yesterday with final qualifying matches and a few doubles encounters.

The main draw offers Novak to chance to play Spanish teenage star Rafael Nadal again in the quarterfinals of the Milan tournament — if both advance — while the lower half of the table includes second seed and defending champion Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands and fourth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain.

Sixth-seeded Nadal, who clinched the decisive point in Spain’s 3-2 victory over the Czechs on Sunday, suffered two losses to Novak — one in singles and one in doubles — in the Davis Cup match at Brno.

Verkerk begins defence of his title against unseeded Davide Sanguinetti, the 2002 Milan champion.

Since most seeded players were on their way from Davis Cup venues, the opening day of Milan Indoors yesterday was devoted to final qualifying matches, which granted access to the main draw to Italy’s Andrea Seppi and Vincenzo Santopadre.