PaesLipsky to open against BaghdatisMuller

Leander Paes will continue his partnership with American Scott Lipsky at the French Open and they were on Sunday drawn to play Marcos Baghdatis and Giles Muller in their first round.

Paes and Lipsky have played four tournaments together coming into the clay court Grand Slam. Last week, they reached the semifinals of ATP250 Geneva Open, and they also won the Tallahassee Challenger and made the last-four of the Bordeaux Challenger.

If they win their first-round match, they may run into the top-seeded pair of Henri Kontinen and John Peers.

Another Indian pair, Divij Sharan and Purav Raja are up against Nicolas Almagro from Spain and Steve Johnson from the USA.

Sharan and Raja enjoyed a great start to the season, making the final of the Chennai Open and then made two semfinals on the ATP World Tour, apart from winning the Bordeaux Challenger title two weeks back.

“It has been a good season so far, if not spectacular. We had some good results. We are playing more ATP250s now,” said Sharan.

In the bottom-half of the men’s doubles draw is Rohan Bopanna, the highest-ranked Indian and his partner Pablo Cuevas. They have been seeded ninth and pitted against the French pair of Mathias Bourgue and Pauk-Henri Mathieu.

In the women’s doubles, Sania Mirza and Yroslava Shvedova are seeded fourth. They will open their campaign against Daria Gavrilova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.