Melbourne, Jan 18 (IANS) India’s Leander Paes and Czech Lukas Dlouhy have been seeded third and India-Belarus pair Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi fourth at the Australian Open men’s doubles.
Paes and Dlouhy play Czech pair Leos Friedl and David Skoch in the opener, while Bhupathi and Mirnyi, who rejoined in November, take on Michael Kohlmann of Germany and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the first round.

Also in the fray, are Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj. They face Americans James Cerretani and Travis Rettenmaier in the first round.

Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi are up against South African Rik De Voest and American Scott Lipsky.

In the women’s doubles, Sania Mirza and Spain’s Virginia Ruano Pascual, seeded 10th, meet Indonesia’s Yayuk Basuki and Kimiko Date of Japan.