Putting behind the disappointment of the French Open, Mahesh Bhupathi said his partner Max Mirnyi and he "will give it all we have" at the Wimbledon championships, beginning on Monday.
"We are going in as favourites and we will give it all we have," Bhupathi said from Nottingham, the venue of final tune-up event for the All England Championships.
Bhupathi and Mirnyi, who lost to Leander Paes and David Rikl in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, have been top seeded at the year's only grasscourt Grand Slam.
The Indian ace was surprised by the top billing given to him and Mirnyi. Although Wimbledon gives weightage to grasscourt performance while seeding the players, Bhupathi said in the case of doubles, seedings are based on individual rankings.
"Seedings [for the doubles at Wimbledon] totally depends on the rankings. We are the highest ranked team individually, therefore we are seeded number one," Bhupathi said.
The Indo-Belarussian pair is ranked fifth in the ATP Doubles Race but on the Entry System, which gives individual ranking of doubles players, Max Mirnyi is the current number one while Bhupathi is ranked sixth.
Their combined ranking adds upto seven, and although it is equal to that of Mike Bryan-Bob Bryan (ranked two and five respectively) and Mark Knowles-Daniel Nestor (three and four), Mirnyi's numero uno status gets them the top honour.
Nevertheless, Bhupathi predicted no easy matches over the next two weeks
"There are definitely a few tough teams: Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge, the Bryan brothers, and [Mark] Knowles and [Daniel] Nestor.
"All of them have a lot of experience on grass. We will take one match at a time," he said.
