London: High seeding in the London Olympics did not bring any respite to the Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna as they would face the World number 1 Max Mirnyi and Alexander Bury of Belarus in the first round.

The pair which was formed after much controversy are in the same quarter as the third seeded pair of Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia. If they go through the opening match then they would possibly meet Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet of France in the pre-quarterfinals.

Meanwhile country’s number one doubles player Leander Paes pairing with lower ranked Vishnu Vardhan, after both Bopanna and Bhupathi refused to pair with him enter the event unseeded will meet Robin Haase and Jean Julien Rojer of the Netherlands in the first round.

If they get past the first round, then it will be an acid test for them as they would possibly meet the second-seeded Michael Llodra and Jo Wilfried Tsonga of France.

On the other hand, the wild card entrants Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi will face Chia Jung Chuang and Su Wei Hsieh of the Chinese Taipei and a win will see them possibly taking on Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

The Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Somdev Devvarman another wildcard entrant was not handed an easy draw either and would face off against Jarko Nieminen of Finland in the opening round and does he go through would face Roger Federer’s doubles partner Stanilas Wawrinka of Switzerland. Somdev is returning to competitive tennis after he took a sabbatical from the game due to a shoulder injury

The draw for the mixed doubles would be announced on July 31. India represented by Paes and Sania would be a strong competitor in this event with a pool of 15 other teams.

Indian Sports News Network