Estranged tennis partners, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will play against each other in the opening round of the mixed doubles draw in the French Open being convened in Paris. In this match, Leander Paes will partner Nadia Petrova of Russia, whereas Mahesh Bhupathi will play alongside Jie Zhang of China. Neither of the teams has been accorded any seedings.

 

As per the doubles draw that was released on Tuesday 27 May, Leander Paes after parting ways with Australia’s Paul Hanley, will play alongside Czech Lukas Dlouhy. Leander Paes and his Czech partner are seeded ninth and will get an easy first-round match against unseeded Thai pair of Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana.

 

On the other hand, Mahesh Bhupathi along with his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles will play against an unseeded team of Australian Stephen Huss and Brit Ross Hutchins. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been engaged in a row for years now. Recently, however, Mahesh Bhupathi again wrote to the All India Tennis Association for being allowed to play with Rohan Bopanna instead in Beijing Olympics rather than with Leander Paes.