US Open: Comfortable first round outing for Indian contingent

The Indian contingent at the US Open tennis championship have a comfortable first round outing with all of them playing unseeded opponents.

Top-ranked Indian doubles player Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, who are seeded fourth, open their campaign against the unseeded team of Jarkko Nieminen of Finland and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia.

Paes recently won the Winston Salem championship with Canada's Daniel Nestor but will participate in the US Open with his regular partner Stepanek.

Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France have been seeded sixth and face unseeded American pair Bradley Klahn and Sam Querrey.

Mahesh Bhupathi and his German partner Philipp Petzschner though have a tricky draw as their opening game is against the dangerous Canadian combine of Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil.

Bhupathi and Petzschner are unseeded and, therefore, have a tough draw ahead of them. Their most difficult game could come as early as the pre-quarters where they might face top-seeded and title contenders Americans Mike and Bob Bryan.

Newcomer Divij Sharan, who has paired with Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu will face Dutch team of Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling.

In the men's singles first round, Somdev Devvarman will take on unseeded Slovak Lukas Lacko.

In women's doubles, Sania Mirza and her Chinese partner Jie Zhenghave have been seeded 10th and their opening match is against Germany's Annika Beck and Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.