Nirupama for US Open qualifier

Nirupama Vaidyanathan will face Anastassia Rodianova of Russia in the first round of the women's singles qualifiers at the US Open 2001.

The draw for the qualifiers, announced on Monday, however, has one prominent Indian missing from it. Leander Paes's name does not figure in the draw for the men's singles. It seems a troublesome hip has kept the Indian ace away.

Paes decided to skip the Indianapolis doubles last week to rest his hip, which has been bothering him since Wimbledon.

Nirupama is placed in the lower quarter of the bottom half of the draw. Her likely second round and third round opponents are 29th seed Alexandra Fusai of France and 16th seed Saori Obata of Japan respectively.

Rodianova, a 19-year-old, ranked 220 of the WTA listing, was a top-20 junior a couple of years back.

Nirupama is ranked 180 in singles and 123 in doubles. Her doubles ranking went up by six spots with the 18 points from the semi-final at the Bronx Classic last week.

Last year, the Indian girl went down in the second round of the qualifiers to the top seed Bedanova.

The draw this year seems to be slightly better for the Indian, though it is never easy at big tournaments.

Alexandra Fusai is the one who beat Nirupama in the final round of the qualifiers at the Australian Open this year.

Also in the qualifying rounds are Rajeev Ram and Sunitha Rao, 17 and 15-year-old US players, who have been given wildcards. They will both also be in the junior draws too.