Mumbai: Mahesh Bhupathi today insisted that the recent controversy involving the selection of players for London Olympics would not affect his game during the mega event.
“It won’t affect the game at the Olympics. Wimbledon is over and we are focussing on Olympics. Mentally, we are ready,” Bhupathi told reporters here at a promotional event.
Bhupathi had only recently blamed the tennis row, which saw him and his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna refusing to partner India doubles No. 1 Leander Paes at the Games, for the duo’s early ouster from the doubles at Wimbledon.
Bhupathi, who is leaving for London on Saturday, said he and partner Bopanna have been preparing for the event for the last seven months.
“We are ready to go. As far as the expectation, the hardest win in an athlete’s life is an Olympic medal. We feel we have a shot as good as the rest. We need to play right and have some luck,” said the 38-year old player.
He admitted that the wait for an Olympic medal has been painful and long.
“The Olympic doubles tournament is possibly the hardest tournament in the world because you have got every top singles guy trying to get Olympic glory and all the top doubles guys as well. So there are no easy matches and there are no free lunches. We have to focus on our first round first and then worry about the rest later.”
On the Olympic tennis matches being hosted in Wimbledon, he said,”It will be huge for all tennis players. Wimbledon is…a Mecca for us… The magnitude of Olympics on top of that, should be a great spectacle for tennis.”
“Luckily, the Olympics is on grass and our grass court season has just ended. The last four weeks we have been practising very hard. Obviously, the results in Wimbledon didn’t go our way. The practise continues and tournaments continue and we are looking forward,” he added.
Praising his partner Bopanna, Bhupathi said that his aggression is exactly what is needed on grass.
“In a doubles team, you need to find the best ways in which you can complement each other so that you can get best results. Rohan and me have been working for seven months. We have been practising very hard and now we are looking forward for the games starting,” he said. (PTI)