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The doubles draws for the US Open were made yesterday.
In the men’s doubles draw, Leander Paes and Radek Stapanek are seeded fourth. They lead the second quarter. Their first round opponents will be Dmitry Tursnov and Jarkko Nimenin and potential quarterfinal opponents will be fifth seeds Aisam Qureshi and Jean-Julien Roger. Their progress up till the semis might be unhindered and could face the Bryans or Bopanna-Roger-Vasselin in the semis.
Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin are seeded sixth and feature in the top quarter. They meet wild card entrants Bradley Klahn and Sam Querrey in their opening encounter. They are drawn to meet the top seeds Bryans in the quarter finals. It was the Bryans who brought an end to their spectacular run at the Wimbledon.
These two will be eager to outsmart the world no.1s who are vying for a calender year grand slam. .
Also featuring in the same quarter is the newly formed duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Philipp Petzschner. They are unseeded and meet the unseeded Canadian pair of Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil. This is Bhupathi’s final slam, and he would like to put in a decent performance.
Divij Sharan is pairing with Taiwanese Yen-Hsun Lu. He will not partner with Purav Raja as the duo would not have gained entry with their rankings. They are drawn to meet Australian Open finalists Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling. Since their run to the final, Haase and Sijsling have failed to do well as a team.
Thus, if the Indo-Taiwanese pair gel well, they can win against their more fancied opponents. It would be Sharan’s first ever win at a Grand Slam.
As far as the rankings go, Bopanna, Paes and Bhupathi are ranked at no.7, no.9 and no.10 respectively. Leander Paes is a defending finalist and has 1200 points to defend.
Bhupathi and Bopanna, on the other hand, lost in the very first round last year. They can, thus, benefit immensely from a good showing.
Also to be noted is that all the four pairs are placed in the top half and if they all advance to the quarters, it would assure India of two semifinalists and one finalist. Though chances for such a situation is bleak with the Bryans lingering in the same half.
In Women’s doubles, Sania Mirza and Zheng Jie, last week’s New Haven Champions, are seeded tenth and are placed in the third quarter. They might face sixth seeds Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Kveta Peschke in the round if 16 and Wimbledon Champions Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei in the quarterfinals.
In their opening encounter, they face rising teen singles players Monica Puig and Annika Beck.
The draw is a considerably tough one for them. But, if they are in good form and play like they played in the last two rounds at Yale, they could create some upsets in the draw.
Mixed doubles draw will be made this week. Let’s all look forward to a good showing by the Indians.
