Tennis

The USD 525,000 hard court event is the estranged duo's final Olympic build-up tournament together to be followed by a few days of practice before they head to the quadrennial extravaganza in Beijing.

They had earlier played together in a pre-Wimbledon grass court tourney in Holland, finishing runners-up. Paes and Bhupathi will take on wild cards Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer of Canada on Wednesday in the opening round.

The tournament also features Rohan Bopanna, who will pair up with Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. Bopanna and Qureshi have a tough opener at hand as they take on fourth seeds Russians Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia.

Meanwhile, after a disappointing grass-court season, Sania Mirza starts her hard-court campaign at the USD 600,000 WTA Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, United States.

The 21-year-old, who has been battling injuries and poor form for quite some while, takes on British qualifier Anne Keothavong in the opening round of the tier-II event.

If Sania clears the first hurdle, she will take on sixth seed French Marion Bartoli in the second round. In doubles, the Hyderabadi girl will pair up with Russian Anna Chakvetadze. They will open their campaign against the Czech pair of Eva Hrdinova and Vladimira Uhlirova.