Bhupathi/Paes and Bopanna/Qureshi Seeded at Coupe Rogers

Written by: Global Chick on 9th August 2011

Bhupathi/Paes and Bopanna/Qureshi Seeded at Coupe Rogers

epa02521801 Indian tennis players Leander Paes (R) and Mahesh Bhupathi (L) celebrate after winning the doubles final match against Dutch Robin Haase and David Martin of the USA during the Chennai Open 2011 tennis tournament in Chennai, India, 09 January 2011. The Indian pair won 6-2, 6-7 and 10-7. EPA/NATHAN G. |

Bhupathi/Paes and Bopanna/Qureshi seeded three and five at Coupe Rogers

Indian super team Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes are competing at the Rogers Cup this week in Montréal.

Bhupathi is ranked No. 5 in the world three spots ahead of his more experienced partner Leander Paes, who is in the eight spot on the ATP Tour doubles ranking this week.

The 37-year-old Bhupathi has won 48 career doubles titles. This year Mahesh and Leander won the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami and the Chennai Tournament in January. They were also runners up at Queens the week before Wimbledon and they reached the final of the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open.

Leander Paes is not just a doubles specialist he has also won countless Grand Slam titles in Mixed Doubles with various partners. He holds the record for most appearances at the Olympics by an Asian athlete.

The 38-year-old Calcutta born tennis professional used to play singles early on in his career. In 1998 Paes reached No. 73 on the singles ranking. In that same year he won his first and only singles career title in Newport, RI.

This week Bhupathi and Paes are seeded number three. They have a bye in the first round. They will face Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic and Florian Mayer of Germany who beat Spanish team Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez 6-3 7-6 (5).

Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan is teaming up with regular partner Rohan Bopanna of India. Qureshi’s doubles ranking this week is No. 10 but he has been as high as No. 8.

Qureshi’s partner Rohan Bopanna is ranked just one spot below him at No. 11. The Pakistani/Indian team won the Halle tournament in June beating Robin Hasse and Milos Raonic in the final in three sets.

The team played in Washington last week but lost in the first round to Mark Knowles of The Bahamas and Belgian Xavier Malisse. This week the team is still waiting for their opponent to be determined. They will play the winners of Aussie Paul Hanley/Bruno Soares of Brazil and Nicolas Almagro of Spain and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic.