LONDON: India’s top player Sania Mirza has lashed out at the country’s tennis chiefs, saying she was humiliated at being used as “bait” in an Olympic selection row to pacify a disgruntled Leander Paes.
It was reported that Paes made being paired with Mirza in the mixed doubles a pre-condition for playing with a lower-ranked player in the men’s doubles.
“As an Indian woman belonging to the 21st century, what I find disillusioning is the humiliating manner in which I was put up as a bait to try and pacify one of the disgruntled stalwarts of Indian tennis,” Mirza said in a statement.
“The manner and timing of the announcement reeks of male chauvinism,” Mirza said. She particularly complained about being “offered in compensation to partner one of the feuding champions purely in order to lure him into accepting to play with a men’s player he does not wish to play with!
“This kind of blatant humiliation of Indian womanhood needs to be condemned even if it comes from the highest controlling body of tennis in our country,” she said.
Mirza, currently playing at Wimbledon, will partner Paes at the Olympics despite winning two Grand Slam titles with Bhupathi – the Australian Open in 2009 and French Open in 2012. She is also partnered with Bhupathi for the championships.
Speaking to AFP in London on Tuesday, Mirza said the very public row had soured preparations for the Games in London.
“It’s not a nice situation. Obviously it wasn’t the ideal situation you want before an Olympics,” she said.
“It got really mucky and dirty with everyone saying all kinds of things.”
AITA’s weak defence
In a statement issued in New Delhi on Wednesday, AITA insisted that it’s final selection for the Olympics pairings had been based “purely on merit” and appealed to players to stop using the media to air their grievances.
“AITA believes that Leander and Sania together are capable of producing fantastic results in the Olympics,” the statement said.
“We earnestly appeal to all the players to unite together, shed off all their differences, stop going public and join hands together in the best national interest of winning medals for the country.”
Bhupathi-Bopanna in second round
Meanwhile, Bhupathi and Bopanna notched up a straight-sets victory and advanced to the second round of the men’s doubles event at the Wimbledon here on Wednesday.
The seventh-seeded Indian combination got the better of Marcel Felder of Uruguay and Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-0 7-6 (1) 6-2 in an hour and 36 minutes.
Dominating from the word go, the Indian duo took just 17 minutes to wrap up the first set after converting three of the four breakpoint chances.
However, Felder and Jaziri managed to take the second set to the tie-breaker, which was won by the Indians, and after that, they did not let the advantage slip and won the third set comfortably. (Agencies)