BANGALORE: The AITA selection committee is gearing up for a stormy meeting to decide on the men’s doubles combination for the London Olympics amidst reports that Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi are keen to play as a team instead of pairing up with any other player.
Leander Paes (7th) is India’s highest ranked player but Bhupathi (14) and Bopanna’s (12) combined ranking of 26 can easily take them to the draw and they can even be seeded as a pair. If AITA listens to what Bhupathi and Bopanna have expressed through their e-mails, it will leave Paes without a partner or play with somebody from the next generation players such as Somdev Devvraman, who has not played tennis for more than six months due to a shoulder injury. One of the selection committee members questioned Bhuapthi and Bopanna’s stand. “How can they dictate what the team should be. The committee will decide what the combination should be and not the players,” the member said.
Bhupathi and Bopanna had paired as a team at the start of the year and the latter even broke his very successful pairing with Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi.
Bhupathi and Bopanna, in their communication to AITA, have reportedly said that they came together as a team to prepare for Olympics.
Sources say the AITA is keen to field Paes with Bhupathi or Bopanna. In that case, either Bopanna or Bhupathi will miss out on the event. It is because no other Indian player has a ranking with which either Bopanna or Bhupathi can make a pair with their combined rankings. Players confrontation is not new to AITA but the fact that it is faced with the task of selecting a team for the Olympics and not for any Davis Cup rubber, is what makes it even more crucial. How the AITA handles this crisis remains to be seen. (PTI)
