Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi received a huge boost to their Olympics medal hopes when they were drawn in a relatively easy bottom half in the men's doubles tennis event on Thursday.
The 'Indian Express', who have been seeded fifth, open their campaign against the American pair of Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish and can expect another high profile showdown in the second round against Swiss star Roger Federer and Yves Allegro.
Should the seedings hold, the Indians' first tough test would come in the quarter-finals where they are likely to run into the fourth-seeded Zimbabwean duo Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett on the way to a potential semi-final clash against second seeds Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge of Australia.
The top half of the 32-size draw features the top seeds America's Bryan brothers -- Bob and Mike, Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra of France (3), Argentines Gaston Etlis and Martin Rodriguez (6), Martin Damm and Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic (7).
The tennis competition, to be played from August 15 to 22, will be held at the Olympic Tennis Centre that is part of the main complex and situated nine kilometres north of the Olympic Stadium.
The Tennis Centre comprises 16 courts including the Centre Court with a capacity of 8,000 besides two show courts with a capacity of 7,000 each.
The surface is Decoturf and 172 men and women will be competing for immortal glory.
The matches are to be played in the mornings and evenings on the first three days while on the remaining days they are scheduled only in the evening.
The women's singles and men's doubles finals are slated for August 21; and the men's singles and women's doubles finals on August 22.
The following are the seeds for the Olympic tennis event:
Women's singles: 1-Justine Henin-Hardenne (Belgium) 2-Amelie Mauresmo (France) 3-Anastasia Myskina (Russia) 4-Elena Dementieva (Russia) 5-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 6-Venus Williams (U.S.) 7-Paola Suarez (Argentina) 8-Ai Sugiyama (Japan) 9-Nadia Petrova (Russia) 10-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 11-Francesca Schiavone (Italy) 12-Karolina Sprem (Croatia) 13-Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi (Israel) 14-Silvia Farina Elia (Italy) 15-Magdalena Maleeva (Bulgaria) 16-Chanda Rubin (U.S.)
Men's singles: 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) 2-Andy Roddick (U.S.) 3-Carlos Moya (Spain) 4-Tim Henman (Britain) 5-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 6-David Nalbandian (Argentina) 7-Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 8-Sebastien Grosjean (France) 9-Marat Safin (Russia) 10-Nicolas Massu (Chile) 11-Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina) 12-Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) 13-Andrei Pavel (Romania) 14-Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) 15-Tommy Robredo (Spain) 16-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile)
Women's doubles: 1-Svetlana Kuznetsova/Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) 2-Conchita Martinez/Virginia Ruano Pascual (Spain) 3-Martina Navratilova/Lisa Raymond (U.S.) 4-Alicia Molik/Rennae Stubbs (Australia) 5-Shinobu Asagoe/Ai Sugiyama (Japan) 6-Myriam Casanova/Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 7-Paola Suarez/Patricia Tarabini (Argentina) 8-Ting Li/Tian Tian Sun (China)
Men's doubles: 1-Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan (U.S.) 2-Wayne Arthurs/Todd Woodbridge (Australia) 3-Michael Llodra/Fabrice Santoro (France) 4-Wayne Black/Kevin Ullyett (Zimbabwe) 5-Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes (India) 6-Gaston Etlis/Martin Rodriguez (Argentina) 7-Martin Damm/Cyril Suk (Czech Republic) 8-Jonathan Erlich/Andy Ram (Israel).
