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Bhupathi-Bopanna seeded No 7

Last updated on: July 26, 2012 15:23 IST

Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, who took on the All India Tennis Association to compete as a team at the London Olympics, have been seeded seventh in the men's doubles.

The pair is placed a rung above the Serbian combination of singles' world No 2 Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki in the tournament, to be held at Wimbledon.

- London Olympics 2012 - Complete coverage

Bhupathi and Bopanna had a bitter row with the AITA it separated the pair in the initial selection for the Olympics.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan BopannaBhupathi, and later Bopanna, were asked to pair with Leander Paes initially, but both the players steadfastly refused to follow the the parent body's diktat.

After weeks of wrangling, the duo was allowed to travel to London as a team, while Paes, India's lone tennis medallist at the Games, having won a bronze in singles at Atlanta in 1996, was paired with the lower-ranked Vishnu Vardhan.

Paes and Vardhan are unseeded in the mega-event.

In fact, Bhupathi and Bopanna are the only seeded Indian players in the fray in tennis.

The top seeds in the men's doubles draw are expectedly American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, followed by the French combine of Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia are seeded third.

In women's doubles, Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravorthy will compete as an unseeded team.

Wimbledon champion Roger Federer is the top seed in the men's singles, with Beijing Olympic bronze-medallist Djokovic No 2.

Another leading contender and defending champion Rafael Nadal pulled out due to a hamstring injury.

Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus tops the women's seeds, followed by Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

The tennis competition commences on July 28.

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