SYDNEY, January 15: India has bagged both wild cards reserved for Asian players in this year's Australian Open Tennis Championship with Leander Paes and Nirupama Vaidyanathan earning them.The 25-year-old Paes retains the distinction he earned last year when the scheme was introduced by the organisers of the season-opening Grand Slam at Flinders Park, Melbourne as the highest ranked Asian.
Paes, who reached the third round in the US Open last year in his best Grand Slam showing yet is currently ranked 122 in the world.
Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had started the year on a roaring note when the duo, which emerged ATP World Championship runners-up, won the men's doubles at the Qatar Open last week.
The 20-year-old Nirupama, ranked an impressive 196, gets into the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time. She has been doing well on the European circuit.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
