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Wednesday, August 25, 1999
Paes to meet Hill in first round qualifiers
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
New Delhi, Aug 24: Leander Paes is drawn to play Australian Michael Hill, ranked 205, in the first round of qualifiers for the US Open. The draw shows Nicolas Massu (Chile) ranked 133 and German Michael Kohlmann, ranked 117, placed in the same possible pre-quarter grouping as Paes. The highest ranking Indian woman, Nirupama Vaidyanathan, is drawn to face 14th seed Italian Tathiana Garbin (121) in her first round qualifiers.Paes, who had been the Asia's number one player since late 1996, when he took over from Shuzo Matsuoka of Japan, has now lost that spot for the second time in three years. He relinquished the spot to Uzbek Oleg Ogorodov for a few weeks in December 1997. Ogorodov had fallen below the 200 rank. Though Japan's Takao Suzuki had come up inside the top-110 this year, Paes stayed just ahead. Takao has now fallen below 200. With Paes' ranking falling to around the 185 mark, Ogorodov, who is up to 130, has taken over again. Paes has fallen to No 4 in Asia, behind Ogorodov, Japan's GoichiMotomura (168) and Uzbek Vadim Kutsenko (176). Nirupama is placed at 221 in singles and 261 in doubles. Manisha Malhotra and Sai Jayalakshmy stay at 386 and 423. Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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