Indians get tough tennis draw

The former world No 1 'Indian Express' pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been placed in a tough Olympic tennis doubles draw, announced on Friday.

In the singles too Indian medal hope Paes, who won the bronze at Atlanta in 1996, faces a stiff challenge> He is pitted against 28-year-old unseeded Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden in the first round.

In the women's doubles section, the last minute wild card duo of Manisha Malhotra and Nirupama Vaidyanathan have been pitted against the sixth seeded Australian pair of Jelena Dokic and Rennae Stubbs in the first round.

Paes, ranked 152, will be facing Mikael Tillstrom for the second time in his career. In their last meeting, which was at the Australian Open '98 in first round, Tillstrom has defeated Paes 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

If Paes gets past Tillstrom, he has a potential match-up against 16th seed Michael Chang in second round, followed by 7th seed Henman in third and top seed Marat Safin in the quarter-finals. Going by his current form, the Indian ace faces an uphill battle in his bid to defend his Olympic bronze.

In the men's doubles, the Indians will face the unseeded pair of Andrei Pavel and Gabriel Trifu of Romania in the first round followed by the Woodies in the second round. The Woodies have a first round bye.

The Indian pair is placed in the upper half of the draw with top seed Woodies, 3rd seed Jiri Novak and David Rikl of Czech Republic, 6th seed Nicklas Kulti and Mikael Tillstrom and 9th seed Massimo Bertolini and Cristian Brandi of Italy as the other seeded teams.

3rd seed Jiri Novak and David Rikl of Czech Republic have also got a first round bye with top seeds Woodies and the 2nd seeded American pair of Alex O'Brien and Jared Palmer.

Some good teams in the lower half of the draw are 7th seed Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe, 4th seed Canadian pair of Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor, 5th seed South African pair of David Admas and John-Laffnie De Jager, Russian pair of Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

For the women's team of Nirupama and Manisha, they have a tough first round match. They are in the same quarter of the draw as 4th seed Nana Miyagi and Ai Sugiyama.

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