Indian doubles ace eyes Memphis and Dubai to start the new season with a bang.

By Bhagya Ayyavoo

Top billing at any tournament comes with responsibility. When fit-again Mahesh Bhupathi takes to the court at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, the former champion will be quite wary of that.

The ATP World Tour 500 tournament kicked off on Monday evening and the top-seeded duo of Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi will face a stiff challenge in the opening hurdle against an all-American team of Eric Butorac and Rajeev Ram.

Bhupathi has had a bumpy ride so far in 2010, troubled by niggles. Partnering Rohan Bopanna, he fell to British teammates Ken Skupski and Colin Fleming in the second round of the season-opening ATP 250 event, the Chennai Open in the first week of January.

Couple of weeks later, the 11-time Grand Slam champion (struggling with a calf-muscle injury) and Mirnyi, were shown the door in the first round of the Australian Open by German-Finnish pair of Michael Kohlmann and Jarkko Nieminen.

Now, when the other top players above him (except for former partner Mark Knowles) have at least half a dozen wins already in the season, the Indian has played only three, with a 1-2 win-loss record.

However, Bhupathi denies his injury had hit the start to the season. The 35-year-old, who has won 45 doubles titles on the ATP Tour said, "Our season has just started so Memphis and Dubai will get the hard court season going for us. Injury has not hampered anything."

Bhupathi last won a title at the Montreal Masters in Canada in September 2009 and Bhupathi who claims "am healthy now" will be counting on Memphis to change his fortunes.

Memphis, no doubt has been one of his favourite hunting grounds. In 2008, his 14-match winning streak started here, when he won back-to-back titles in Memphis and at the Dubai Championships.

Bhupathi and Mirnyi, who have won seven ATP titles including the 2002 US Open crown, have also advanced to eight other finals (including the 2003 Wimbledon) during their earlier partnership that started late in 2002.