Doubles dreams ready to roll

NEW YORK, Aug 31: India's Leander Paes, partnering Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic, is seeded fifth in the men's doubles at the US Open while Mahesh Bhupathi and Czech partner Martin Damm have been seeded seven.
Paes and Zimonjic, placed in the bottom quarter of the top half, open against the American pairing of Amil Delic and Jeff Morrison.
Swede Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi of Belarus are the top-seeds.The Indo-Serbian pair are in the same quarter as the
fourth-seeds Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe. Paes, however, refused to read into the draw.
"I don't look at draws," Paes said. "I always see who I am playing in the first round and after that it is one round at a time."
Paes and Zimonjic, who have played together with limited success these last eight months, are looking for their first Grand Slam title as a team.
"I think what will take us from being the number five seeds to winning the tournament is a little more belief in ourselves as a team on the big points. It is a very little but crucial step that we need to take," Paes said.
Meanwhile Bhupathi and Damm, in the top quarter of the bottom half, seeded to play Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor in the last eight, are in the same half of the draw as the Bryan twins Bob and Mike.
In their opening round match late on Wednesday the Indo Czech pair play Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Cyril Saulnier. "Both of them are good singles players," Bhupathi said. "We'll have to be at our best."
Meanwhile, in the women's doubles, India's Sania Mirza, teaming up with Aussie doubles specialist Bryanne Stewart, 25, ranked 21 in doubles, have drawn eleventh seeds France's Emilie Loit and Aussie Nicole Pratt.
Sania and Stewart play their first round match on Thursday.
There's more Indian interest in the women's doubles draw with Neha Uberoi and Ahsha Rolle of the United States getting a wildcard into the main draw. The American pair will play Belgium's Ells Callens and Mara Santangelo of Italy.