``We got to see quite a bit of Bangkok this morning,'' quipped non-playing captain and coach, Jaideep Mukherjea. ``We must have gone at least 70-80 km the other way,'' he added. Thankfully, Mahesh Bhupathi was spared the ordeal as he will land here only on Tuesday morning to face one of the toughest schedules of his career.

India play their first match against lowly-placed Qatar on Wednesday. Amidst all this, the disappointment of not having Leander Paes refuses to wear off. The Indians know they can do little, but they cannot help worrying for they have been seeing most oftheir opposition in action this season. The Uzbeks, Oleg Ogorodov and Vadin Kutsenko, No 1 and No 3 in a Paes-less field, have virtually been living in India for the past few weeks. Japan's Hideki Kaneko, now ranked 219 on the ATP computer, and the No 2 seed for the individual event did the Indian circuit last year and won quite a few titles.

Even as Leander and Mahesh Bhupathi have been parading their doubles talent around the world, a new crop of Asian players have been making the best use of the Indian circuit. The top three ATP-ranked players here in Bangkok, Ogorodov (214), Kaneko (219), Kutsenko (249) are familiar names for Indian followers. Add to them a few more like Lee Hyung Taik, the Korean who played well at the Asia Cup last month, Thai youngster Paradorn Srichaphan who along with Leander was chosen as a special recipient of the `Asian wildcard' for the 1998 Australian Open, and another Uzbek Dmitry Tomashevich, who played in India Challengers and Futures.

They spent weeks in a row in India,collecting valuable ATP points and titles. And now this same lot could stand between India and the Asian Games that they won four years ago in Hiroshima.

In Leander's absence the Indians are seeded fourth, which actually is good for them. As third seeds, they may have faced Uzbekistan as early as the quarter-finals. Now India is first paired against Qatar, the team with the lowest combined ranking from among the 13 nations in the fray. The top three seeds Uzbekistan, Japan and South Korea have got byes.

After Qatar, India have a tough quarter-final match against Pakistan, who stretched them in Asia Cup. The semi-final, if the competition goes on expected lines, pits India against Japan. The upper half of the draw has Uzbekistan and Korea.

In the women's, India has tough first match against Indonesia, who have brought Yayuk Basuki Basuki was one of the first Asian women to make an impression at the highest levels of international women's tennis. At 28, still ranked 57, she is seen as a kind of seniorstateswoman at these Games and put off her final retirement plans only for these Games. After Basuki some other Asian women have also made their mark like world No 38 Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, now the favourite for the gold.If India get past the Indonesians they are assured of a medal, but in the semi-final it will be either China or Korea. The top seeds are Chinese Taipei and the other seeds are China, Japan and Indonesia.

Nirupama Vaidyanathan may have her best chance in mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi, but before that she seemed more worried about getting an ice pack for her sore right shoulder that doctor, Vece Paes was attending to. ``Nothing to worry,'' assured Vece and Mukherjea. And let's hope that's the way everything else stays.