Doubles teams trying for key points in French Open

JAKARTA (JP): The world's top doubles teams are seeking to rack up valuable extra points during the French Open in their bids for places in November's ATP Tour World Doubles championship here.

The race for the top spots on the latest doubles rankings is so close, with only 160 ranking points separating the number one team of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde from the number five pair of Trevor Kronemann and David Machperson.

Winners of the two-week Grand Slam played on clay court will gain a whopping 520 ranking points. "A good performance on the red clay of Rolland Garros can solidify a top team's position or move a little-known team into contention," said Russell Barlow, the ATP Tour consultant for the World Doubles championship in Jakarta.

Barlow cited the young Swedish team of Jonas Bjorkman and Jan Apell who reached the final in Paris last year and began a successful run to the title in the year-end tournament in Jakarta.

Apell and Bjorkman, seeded fifth, got off to a flying start in the French Open, beating the home pair of Jean-Francois Bachelot and Maxime Huard to join other top seed pairs to the second round on Wednesday.

Second seeds Paul Haarhuis and Jacco Eltingh of the Netherlands and defending champions Byron Black of South Africa and Jonathan Stark of the U.S. also cleared their first hurdles with convincing wins.

The Dutch team have just finished their World Cup campaign in Dusseldorf, Germany with a perfect 3-0 round-robin record to win the Gatzweiler Alt bonus.

Black and Stark signaled their intentions to retain their title after their warm-up victory in Bologna, Italy last week. The pair have played in only four tournaments together this season since Black was ill with mononucleosis disease. (amd)