Eight teams confirm for
ATP World doubles

Some of the best doubles teams have confirmed participation for the ATP World Doubles Challenge Cup, which will be held in Bangalore from January 29 to February 2.

The event was forced to be cancelled last year due to the post-September 11 situation.

The tournament, which carries prize-money of US $400,000, will have the top eight ranked teams in the world, as of December 2001, Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association secretary C S Sunder Raju informed.

The eight teams to confirm participation are: Donald Johnson / Jared Palmer (USA), Mahesh Bhupathi / Leander Paes (India), Wayne Black / Kevin Ullyett (Zimbabwe), Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan (USA), Petr Pala / Pavel Vizner (Czechoslovakia), Mark Knowles (Bahmas) / Brian McPhie (USA), Jeff Tarango (USA) / Michael Hill (Australia), and Rick Leach (USA) / Ellis Ferriera (South Africa).

However, the world number one pair of Todd Woodbridge of Australia and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and world number three David Rikl and Jiri Novak of Czechoslovakia are yet to confirm their participation.

Raju said if they confirm their entry then the pairs of Tarango/Hill and Leach/Ferriera would make way for them.

Speaking about the fresh dates for the tournament, he informed that the go-ahead to stage the even was received from ATP CEO Mark Miles at 3 a.m on Tuesday morning.

"The ATP was not sure if we could conduct such a major event in just 15 days' time. They had to check with us, the players and the tournament directors around the world about the prospects of conducting a tournament in such a short time. Vijay Amritraj, who truly is the tennis ambassador of India, did a tremendous job in convincing the players and the ATP , and we finally got the approval this morning," said Raju.