Sania to pair with Santoro at Roland Garros

PARIS: Sania Mirza will partner French Grand Slam champion Fabrice Santoro while Mahesh Bhupathi will step on to the court with Paola Saurez of Argentina in the mixed doubles at the French Open here.

The much-awaited pairing of Sania and Bhupathi at a Grand Slam did not fructify at this year's clay court major since their combined doubles ranking fell below the cut-off mark of 56.

Meanwhile, Leander Paes will be playing with American Meghann Shaughnessy.

In the men's doubles, Paes would launch his campaign on Wednesday with his partner Martin Damm of Czech Republic against the local combination of Jeremy Chardy and Jonathan Eysseric.

The duo have been seeded third and together they have won two Masters Series and were runners-up at another two ATP tournaments this season.

Bhupathi has paired with Czech Republic player Radek Stepanek and they take on the Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenber and Marcin Matkowski.

Sania's first round match against Alberta Brianti of Italy is also scheduled for Wednesday.

The 20-year-old Hyderabadi girl, who will be coached by Gabriel Urpi during the fortnight at Roland Garros, would share the same side of the court with Eva Birnerova of Czech Republic.