Paes-Bhupathi seeded third for Australian Open

The Indian doubles duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been seeded third at the Australian Open 2002.

They will face the unseeded pair of Julian Knowle of Austria and Michael Kohlmann of Germany in the first round on Thursday.

Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Todd Woodbridge of Australia are the top seeds while the American pair of Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer are the second seeds.

Paes-Bhupathi are drawn in the upper half of the draw. Eighth seeded Ellis Ferreira of South Africa and Rick Leach of the United States; 12th seeded Brian MacPhie of the United States and Nenad Zimonjic of Yugoslavia and the 15th seeded Asutralian pair of Wayne Arthurs and Michael Hill are the other seeded teams in their quarter.

The Indians have never faced Knowle and Kolhmann. Knowle is currently ranked 83rd on the ATP individual doubles ranking and had partnered Lorenzo Manta of Switzerland at the three Grand Slams last year, while Kolhmann is ranked 81st.

If Paes/Bhupathi win they will face the French pair of Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro in the second round. Llodra/Santoro defeated Aleksandar Kitinov of Makadonia and Johan Landsberg of Sweden 7-5, 6-1 in their first round match on Wednesday.

In the other matches on Wednesday, eighth seeds Ellis Ferreira and Rick Leach defeated Scott Humphries of the United States and Peter Nyborg of Sweden 6-1, 6-3 to move into the second round, where they will face the Argentine pair of Gaston Etlis and Mariano Hood.

The second seeded American pair of Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer also moved into the second round, where they will face the Spanish pair of Albert Costa and Alberto Martin. Johnson/Palmer defeated another American pair of Mardy Fish and Jeff Morrison 6-4, 6-4 in the first round, while Costa/Martin got the better of Andrei Olhovskiy of Russia and Thomas Shimada of Japan 7-6(8-6), 6-4.

Ninth seeded Mark Knowles of Bahama and Daniel Nestor of Canada defeated Karsten Braasch of Germany and Andre Sa of Brazil 6-3, 1-6, 7-5, while seventh seeded Czech pair of Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner defeated Tim Crichton of Australia and Glenn Weiner of the United States 7-5, 6-2 in the first round.

Last year, the Indians had crashed out of the event, losing to the Australian pair of Joshua Eagle and Andrew Florent 6-7(5), 4-6 in the first round.