TOUGH DRAWS MEAN SANIA-PAES OUR MAIN HOPES

Coming to tennis, Wimbledon ended three weeks ago, and I've been told by players that the grass is even and as good as new. That is a wonderful achievement by the All England Club because growing grass at such a short notice is indeed a tough task.
I think Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthi, who are scheduled to face Chinese Taipei's Su Wei Hsieh and Chia-Jung Chuang in the opening round on Saturday, have the toughest draw among the Indians. Having seen the Chinese Taipei players in the Fed Cup on a couple of occasions, I can say they are a very tough doubles team.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, too, have a difficult opening round against world No.1 Max Mirnyi and Alexander Bury of Belarus.
Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan have a relatively easy draw. Vishnu is playing in his maiden Olympics and will be extremely nervous. Leander will have his task cut out in trying to keep him relaxed.
In singles, Somdev Devvarman has got a first-round match that he would like to play. He has been drawn against Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, whose favourite surface is not grass.
In the mixed doubles, I feel Sania and Paes have the best chance of winning a medal. It is indeed heartening that they had a couple of good practice sessions, and I hear from Sania that the practice was in good spirits.