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Tough opener for Paes/Bhupathi

Shailesh Soni

The top seeded Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi take on the unseeded pair of Piet Norval and Kevin Ullyett in the first round of the doubles competition at the U.S. Open Tennis championships today.

The Indians will be under tremendous pressure following their triumphs in the last two Grand Slam tournaments. Added to that is the poor form of Bhupathi, who has not yet recovered from the injury he suffered during the Wimbledon championships, and the disturbing media reports of the pair planning to split.

Piet Norval and Kevin Ullyett are a tough team. Infact, they are third highest in sum-rank among the unseeded teams at the US Open. They were seeded 15th at the French Open this year. Currently they are 13th in team rankings, based on this year's points, and are the second highest ranked team, behind ninth ranked Arthurs/Kratzmann, who are also unseeded at the US Open.

Paes and Bhupathi played them in the third round of the French Open this year and won only after a tough three-setter, at 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. Also, Paes and Jarred Palmer played them at the Montreal Super 9 and needed a three sets to win the second round match, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

The Indians have had some good rest over the last week and one hopes they'll get their act together in time for the crunch opener.

Should they get past the first round, they will probably run into Gambill/Peterson, who are the dark horses. In the third round they could meet the promising, hard-serving, team of Justin Gimelstob and veteran Richey Reneberg. Next could be Ferreira/Leach or the always tough Kefelnikov/Vacek, who beat the Indians in their first semi-final at US Open in '97.

The bottom quarter in the top half has fourth seeds Adam/DeJager and sixth seeds Black/Stolle, as also the 13th seeds Tarango/Ivanisevic, the French Open finalists. The bottom half of the draw has second seeds Haarhuis/Palmer, third seeds Woodies, fifth seeds Delaitre/Santoro, ninth seeds Knowles/Nestor and 11th seeds Lareau/O'Brien. Since Pat Rafter is skipping the doubles due to niggling injuries, Bjorkman is playing with Byron Black. They are seeded seventh and are in the bottom half.

In the mixed doubles, Paes and Lisa Raymond are the top seeded pair, while Bhupathi and Ai Sugiyama of Japan are second seeds.

Paes and Raymond won the Wimbledon title this year. They will face the South African pair of Liezel Horn and Kevin Ullyett in the first round.

Bhupathi and Sugiyama, who reached the quarter-finals of the French Open this year, will face Alexandra Fusai of France and Martin Damm of Czech Republic in the first round match to be played today.