Indian tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus have been given the pride of place in the men's doubles at the Wimbledon championships, beginning June 23.

Bhupathi's former partner Leander Paes and David Rikl of the Czech Republic are seeded No. 5.

Paes and Rikl are ranked third, above fifth-placed Bhupathi and Mirnyi, in the ATP Doubles Race, but Wimbledon, which stages the year's only grass court Grand Slam event, gives weightage to players' performance on grass in its seeding formula.

Thus, the players are first listed as per their rankings and then 100 per cent of the points they earned from grass court events during the last 12 months as well as 75 per cent of the points earned in the previous 12 months are added to arrive at the final list.

Bhupathi and Mirnyi, the reigning US Open champions, reached the final of the Queen's Club event last week while Paes, partnering Donald Johnson, lost in the first round at Halle, Germany.

Bhupathi and Mirnyi, who lost to Paes and Rikl in the quarter-finals at the French Open on clay, also reached the last-eight stage at Wimbledon last year.

Bhupathi and Paes together triumphed at Wimbledon in their watershed year of 1999, when they reached the finals of all four Grand Slams.