Paes-Bhupathi seeded second for Gold Flake Open

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been seeded second, next to the Black brothers from Zimbabwe, Byron and Wayne, in the doubles event of the Gold Flake Open ATP World Tour Tennis Championship beginning in Madras on Sunday.

Placed in the bottom half of the draw, the Indians are up against tough opponents in the first round. They have been drawn to meet the Swedes Andreas Vinciguerra and Johan Landsberg, an established doubles player.

If they win, Paes and Bhupathi will face the winners of the scratch pair of Erlich Jonathan (Israel) and Laurence Tieleman (Italy) versus a qualifier in the quarters.

In the draw of 16, Eyal Ran (Israel) and Jairo Velasco (Spain) were seeded third followed by the South African pair of Paul Rosner and Jason Weir Smith.

Of the three wild cards, two were given to the Indian pairs of Saurav Panja/Prahlad Srinath and Mustafa Ghouse/Vishal Uppal. The other one went to Barry Cowan (Britain)/Mose Navarra (Italy).

The Indian duo, who reunited this year after a brief separation, which forced Paes to team up with Byron Black, will be looking for their fourth title at the Nungambakkam Tennis Stadium, where their fairytale run began in 1997, ending in a hat-trick of titles at the venue in 1999.

UNI