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Leander hits career-highest ranking

Leander Paes has been seeded number two in the Binghamton Challenger, just behind Argentine player Guilermo Canas.

Paes will play Peter Luxa in a first round scheduled for later today.

It could be a tough opening encounter -- Luxa having done particularly well in recent tournaments. He reached the finals of the Istanbul Challenger last week, and in the process moved 26 spots up the rankings ladder. Incidentally, one of his victims in Istanbul was Mahesh Bhupathi, Leander's friend and doubles partner.

In Binghampton, Leander finds himself in the lower -- and tougher -- half of the draw and will have to overcome potentially troublesome customers like Luxa (ranked 162), Cristiano Caratti (157), Stefano Pescolido (193), third seeded Italian Diego Nargiso of Italy, Ronald Agenor, and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

Leander will have his work cut out to win the event, which he had won in its inaugural year, in 1994.

Fellow Indian Syed Fazaluddin however lost in the final round of the Binghamton challenger qualifiers to Max Mirnyi. He was the last direct entry in the qualifier draw. Prahlad Srinath also lost in the first round of the qualifier.

The latest ATP rankings have Leander at a career high number 5 in the individual doubles rankings, while partner Mahesh Bhupathi slips down one place, to number four, behind Jacco Eltingh, Paul Haarhuis and Jonas Bjorkman.

The Woodies, Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, have both slipped lower thanks to having lost their points from last year, in the Cincinnati Super 9.

The see-sawing rankings owe to the fact that this year, the major tournaments are one-week behind schedule. Paes and Bhupathi struck lucky, since they did not have too many points to defend in Cincinnati anyway.

Next week, however, should see the two Indians lose major points, which they had won last year in New Haven. This time round, they are not playing the event, and the resulting point loss could see Leander drop to number 8 in the rankings.

Mahesh Bhuapthi and Paul Haarhuis, meanwhile, are continuing their recent partnership and have been seeded second at the Cincinnati Super 9 Great American Insurance ATP Championship, with the Woodies as top seeds.

After a first round bye, Bhupathi/Haarhuis will play the winner of the Pablo Albano/Nicolas Lapentti vs Neil Broad/Piet Norval game on Wednesday.

Bhupathi and Haarhuis are in the lower half of the draw, and potential opponents include Don Johnson/Fransico Montana of the US, Jonas Bjorkman/Pat Rafter, Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor, Byron Black/Alex O'Brien, Wayne Black/Sebastien Lareau, Brandon Coupe/Dave Randall and Jim Thomas/David Wheaton. All of which makes for a real tough grind.

In the upper half are the top seeded Todd Woodbridge/Mark Woodforde combo, plus Ellis Ferreira/Rick Leach, Alex Corretja/Jan Siemerink, Justin Gimelstob/Todd Martin, Oliver Delaitre/Fabrice Santoro and Sandon Stolle/Cyril Suk.