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Injured Bhupathi out of Asia Cup

Defending champions India will miss the services of Mahesh Bhupathi, as friend and doubles partner Leander Paes leads the country's challenge in the third edition of the 84,000-dollar Asia Cup tennis tournament beginning on Wednesday.

Bhupathi was ruled out through a shoulder injury.

The Indians won the first two editions of the tournament, beating Korea in 1997 and Uzbekistan last year.

Last year's runners up Uzbekistan, led by Oleg Ogorodov, is the top ranked team of the tournament, followed by hosts India. Japan and Korea are the third and the fourth seeds.

On the allotment of seedings, Asian Tennis Federation CEO Utrapathy said: ''It was decided by taking into account the individual international rankings of the players and the performances of the teams in Davis Cup.''

The four-day tournament, sponsored by MTNL, kicks off tomorrow with India 'A' playing Japan and Thailand taking on Korea.

The Indians meet China in their opening encounter while the top seeds Uzbeks get a bye to the quarterfinals in the absence of an eighth team.

India will field, besides Paes, Davis Cuppers Prahlad Srinath and Syed Fazaluddin, with Sandeep Kirtane coming in for Bhupathi.

The tournament will be played on a knock-out basis, with each encounter comprising two singles and one doubles.

Non-playing captain Jaideep Mukherjee indicated that Srinath would play singles along with Paes.

India A will field Sunil Kumar, Mustafa Ghouse, Vishal Uppal and Vijay Kannan. Vinod Sridhar is the reserve.