Other pairs in the group are fourth seeds Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor, sixth seeds Sandon Stolle/Cyril Suk and eight seeds Donald Johnson/Francisco Montana.

The other group Green Group has top seeded Dutch pair of Jacco Eltingh/Paul Haarhuis, third seeds Todd Woodbridge/Mark Woodforde, fifth seeds Ellis Ferreira/Rick Leach and seventh seeds Oliver Delaitre/Fabrice Santoro.

The Indians play Johnson-Montana on Wednesday local time (0530 IST Thursday). Apart from the Woodies, the Indians have a win loss record of 10-5 against the six other teams and are 3-2 against the top seeded Dutch pair whom they could meet in the semi-finals if they are among the top two teams in their group. Paes/Bhupathi is the only pair who have a chance to overtake theDutchmen for number one, as they are 183 points behind.

Each pair will earn $19,500 for each round robin win (play all three in the group), $40,000 more for a semi-final win, $70,000 more for a title (excluding the year-end ranking based bonus).

The points are 90 for each round robin win, extra 180 points for semifinal win, and 270 points for the final.

Here are the head-to-heads between the teams

Team Bhu Del Elt Fer Joh Kno Sto Woo Total

#Pae San Haa Lea Mon Nes Suk Woo

#2 Bhupathi-Paes --- 1-0 3-2 2-1 3-0 0-1 1-1 1-4 11-9

#7 Delaite-Santoro 0-1 --- 0-0 0-1 0-0 0-1 0-0 1-0 1-3

#1 Eltingh-Haarhuis 2-3 0-0 --- 1-0 1-1 8-1 1-1 8-8 21-14

#5 Ferreira-Leach 1-2 1-0 0-1 --- 1-1 0-0 0-1 0-0 3-5

#8 Johnson-Montana 0-3 0-0 1-1 1-1 --- 1-3 1-0 0-3 4-11

#4 Knowles-Nestor 1-0 1-0 1-8 0-0 3-1 --- 4-1 3-7 13-17

#6 Stolle-Suk 1-1 0-0 1-1 1-0 0-1 1-4 --- 1-2 5-9

#3 Woodbridge-Woodforde 4-1 0-1 8-8 0-0 3-0 7-3 2-1 --- 24-14

Leander Paes has given it a miss, but indications are that hisdoubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi will be arrive in time to lead India's campaign in the second edition of the ATF-Asia Cup tennis tournament beginning here on November 23.

The tournament begins a day after the World Doubles Championships at Hartford (Connecticut). Delhi Lawn Tennis Association secretary Anil Khanna was, however, confident that Bhupathi would join the team for the $84,000 tournament. He said he would be talking to Paes but it is unlikely that the India number one would participate in the tournament even if he agrees to join the team.

With Oleg Ogorodov of Uzbekistan playing -- he has a win against Paes in the final of Madras Challenger in 1996 -- Indians would have a tougher time than the one in the inaugural edition where there was more action off the sidelines than on it. There is also a change in format this year. The league format has been done away with and knockout introduced.

Japan are not sending a side for the second straight year citing domestic commitments, while the eightconfirmed countries are China, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan. India are top seeded followed by Uzbekistan, Korea and Chinese Taipei.

Prize money (in US$): Winner 30,000, Finalist 14,000, Semi-finalists 10,000, quarter-finalists 5,000.