Doubles jeopardy for India

The whole drama began after Bhupathi sent a letter to the federation last week, saying that his chances of winning a medal with Paes were slim without “communication and preparation”.

AITA secretary Anil Khanna said today that accepting Bhupathi’s suggestion that he partner Bopanna was out of the question. “Ask any kid on the street about India’s best medal chance and he will say, ‘Leander and Mahesh’. Fielding two teams — Mahesh with Rohan and Leander with someone else — is not an option. The idea is to win a medal at the Olympics and not send teams to make up the numbers. We’d rather send no team at all,” he told The Indian Express.

But while Khanna said he was confident that Bhupathi would come around, India’s number one doubles player stressed late tonight that there would be no change of heart from his side. “I’m not willing to go into the Olympics under-prepared, and I have made this clear to the AITA. They can’t decide who I play with. They are administrators and don’t know too much about what it takes to win matches. If they don’t want to respect my opinion, what can I say, it’s their decision. They can field whichever team they want, or none at all,” he told The Indian Express from London.

“It’s just too late to play with Leander. He has made his plans clear for the lead-up to the Olympics, that he will play with his new partner Lucas Dlouhy so that he can get enough points to make it into the Shanghai Masters,” Bhupathi added. “That means he doesn’t want to prepare with me for the Olympics. We have been assigned for just a week’s training in Mumbai, that too in the middle of the monsoons. If the AITA doesn’t want to take things seriously, then they can do whatever they like.”

Paes and Bhupathi, one of the most successful pairs in the world in the late 90s split up due to personal differences after winning three Grand Slams together. Despite constant problems with each other since then, they managed to keep their issues aside when it came to representing India.

This time, however, the lines seem to be drawn in concrete. But Khanna assured: “You wait and see, we will sort things out. It will be Leander and Mahesh playing together at the Olympics, and no one else.”