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Leander top-seeded, Bhupathi wildcards

Top seeded Leander Paes of India will face 966-ranked qualifier Chris Groer of the US in the first round of the Windy City Classic-Winnteka Challenger being played at Chicago.

Leander still has some upper body pain, following his fall last week during practise, and the pain in the rib-cage persists, though he hopes to be ready later this evening to play his opening engagement.

In the second round, he will face the winner of the first round match between Noam Behr (ISR) and Lleyton Hewitt (AUS). Hewitt could be a bit of a bother -- this, remember, is the young lad who won an ATP event, out of the blue, down in Australia in January, upsetting everyone who came his way.

Meanwhile, Leander's friend and doubles partner, Mahesh Bhupathi, has got a wild card and will face 4th seed Adriano Ferreira of Brazil in the first round at the $100K+H Challenger in Istanbul, Turkey.

Once again, Mahesh gets a seeded player in his first round, though Ferreira should not be too hard for the Indian number two to take on. Ranked 180 in the ATP listings, Ferreira has come along quite well these last six weeks, winning the Colombian challenger on clay, and then reaching the finals and quarterfinals of the Bristol and Manchester Challengers on grass.

This will be a good win for Mahesh, who has slipped to 407 in the rankings following his loss in the LA Infiniti last year, to pull off.

The fact that Mahesh has a wildcard does make you wonder if the organisers expect him to play doubles in return for the favour. The doubles draw is yet to be released, but there is no denying that in that event, Mahesh's name is quite an attraction, seeded as he is number three in the world.

India's number one woman player Nirupama Vaidyanathan beat 8th seed Erika DeLone, ranked 153, to reach the final round for one of four qualifiers spots for the $450,000 Stanford Bank Of West tourney.

She plays number one seed, 69-ranked Elena Tatarkova in the final round of qualifiers. In the previous round she defeated a unranked wildcard, Katalina Nimmers.

If she wins, it will be the biggest tournament she has ever qualified into, and possibly the biggest win of her career.

Nirupama now has eight points from the two qualifier wins, which should move her up another five spots or so wehn the rankings are released this week. She was at 165 in last week's rankings, and a further progression will continue her steady climb in recent times. If she can then go the distance and win the finals of the qualifier, then that is worth another 21 points, and several more jumps up the rankings ladder.