His partner Leander Paes is closely following him on second position after The Netherlands' Paul Haarhuis lost his opening doubles match at the Monte Carlo Open tournament in Monaco today.

The Dutch doubles specialist, who finished the year 1998 at world number one with veteran Jacco Eltingh, dropped several points by losing on the clay court here that gave Bhupathi a chance to ascend to top of the world.

Bhupathi, will however, be officially named world number one doubles player by the men's tennis governing body ATP Tour when new rankings will be issued on Monday.

Ironically, Bhupathi's rise to the top of the world has come despite his and Paes loss in the second round of Monte Carlo Open to Slovakian qualifiers Karol Kucera and Dominic Hrbaty.

As a team, Paes-Bhupathi are on the number two spot in ATP team doubles rankings with 1091 points.

Zimbabwe'sWayne Black and Sandon Stolle of the US, not regular partners, are world number one pair as per the latest rankings issued by ATP.

Black/Stolle have come together for the first time this year and have a tally of 1267 points.