Paes/Bhupathi face 15th seeds
in opening match

Shailesh Soni

The Indian doubles duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will start their French Open campaign against 15th seeds Jaime Oncins of Brazil and Daniel Orsanic Argentina in the first round.

The Indians, who are attempting to regain the No.1 spot they held in 1999, are unseeded this year because of their low individual rankings. Paes/Bhupathi are in the lower part of the upper half of the draw. The third seeded Czech pair of Jiri Novak and David Rikl are their potential third round opponents.

Top seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge, sixth seeds Max Mirnyi and David Prinosil, eighth seeds Joshua Eagle and Andrew Florent, tenth seeds David Adams and Martin Garcia, 11th seed Michael Hill and Jeff Tarango and 14th seeds Mark Knowles and Brian MacPhie are the other seeded teams in the upper half of the draw.

Oncins and Orsanic are currently seeded 16th on the ATP rankings and have not won a single title this year. The Indians had lost to Oncins/Orsanic in the first round at the US Open last year.

In the women's doubles event, Nirupama Vaidyanathan will partner Nana Miyagi of Japan. They face Kristin Freye of Germany and Trudy Musgrave of Australia in the first round.

The third seeded pair of Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Elena Likhovtseva of Russia are their potential second round opponents.

This will be the third Grand Slam entry in the doubles for Nirupama. Earlier she had played at Australian Open in 1998 and 2001, losing in the first round both times.