Bhupathi, Paes get easy opening matches

Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, both playing with different partners, have drawn relatively easy opening round ties in the men's doubles at the French Open.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, both playing with different partners, have drawn relatively easy opening round ties in the men's doubles at the French Open Tennis championship at Roland Garros in Paris.

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Bhupathi and his Australian partner Todd Woodbridge, seeded fourth, would launch their campaign against a relatively unknown pair of Kevin Kim of USA and Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea.

The sixth seeded duo of Paes and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia Montenegro would face German Florian Mayer and Rogier Wassen of Netherlands in the opening round.

While the real test for Paes and Zimonjic is expected to come only in the quarterfinals, where they are likely to meet third seed American pair of Bob and Mike Bryan, Bhupathi and Woodbridge could face a tricky match against Olympic bronze medallist Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia in the third round.

Though Sania Mirza's challenge in women's singles came to an end in the opening round itself, the 18-year-old will partner Anna Chakvetadze of Russia in the doubles.

They would meet unseeded pair of Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico and Nana Miyagi of Japan in the opening round.