Estranged partners Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were headed for a quarter-final showdown in the French Open tennis championship, according to the doubles draw made in Paris on Tuesday.

Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus have been seeded second, while Paes and his Czech partner David Rikl are the fifth seeds.

Both the teams feature in the bottom-half of the 64-size draw and should the seedings prevail, an exciting clash between two players, who together ruled the doubles tennis a few years ago, is in the offing.

Bhupathi and Mirnyi will be up against Thomas Shimada of Japan and Myles Wakefield of South Africa in the first round.

Shimada was part of the visiting team that played India in a Davis Cup tie in Delhi in February.

Paes and Rikl take on American-South African duo of Justin Gimelstob and David Adams.