Leander keen on singles

Here, the 102-ranked Paes has been handed a fairly good draw, going merely by the rankings and the kind of opposition other Indians all drawn in the bottom half are facing in the first round. Paes is drawn to meet a seed eighth seeded Swiss Lorenzo Mantaonly in the quarterfinal. For that, he has to get past Australia8217;s Joseph Sirianni 343 in the first round and the winnerof Israel8217;s Noam Behr and Czech Republic8217;s Ota Fukarek in the round of 16.

If the quarterfinals are taken care of, Paes would meet either the fourth seed Neville Godwin or sixth seed Uzbek Oleg Ogorodov, who beat him at the Chennai Challenger a couple of years back, in the semifinal if the seeds play true to form.

But his unseeded doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi, ranked 321, has drawn Finn Tuomas Ketola 186 who had to qualify for the main draw. That is a tough ask for the big server whose singles career seems to be languishing far below his doubles. His Davis Cup mate Syed Fazaluddin, who got a wild card into the tournament, also meets a qualifier German Andy Fahlke. And if both the Indians win their first rounds, there would be an interesting second round clash between the two. Prahlad Srinath plays South Africa8217;s Wesley Whitehouse and could run into second seed Vladimir Vlotchkov in the second.

Meanwhile, Paes and Bhupathi are not playing doubles and are expected to play their singles matches onTuesday.

Seeds with rankings in brackets: Leander Paes Ind, 102; Vladimir Voltchkov Blr, 135; Gaston Etlis Arg, 141; Neville Godwin RSA, 144; Andre Sa Bra, 169; Oleg Ogorodov Uzb, 178; Tuomas Ketola Fin, 186; Lorenzo Manta, 205

Qualifying final round; first named qualifies for main draw: Tuomas Ketola Fin b Arjun Sharma Ind 6-1, 6-0; Andy Fahlke Ger b Sandeep Kirtane Ind 6-1, 6-1; Andreas Vinciguerra Swe b Pala Petr Cze 5-2 retd; Marcus Hilpert Ger b Omar Camporese Ita 6-1, 1-1 retd.