Mahesh Bhupathi may be counting on Leander Paes not making the cut for the Beijing Games if he and Rohan Bopanna refuse to play with him.
That is if Bhupathi stays adamant in his demand of not playing with Leander at the Beijing Games
NEW DELHI: Mahesh Bhupathi may be counting on Leander Paes not making the cut for the Beijing Games if he and Rohan Bopanna refuse to play with him, but it appears that may not be the case. AITA secretary Anil Khanna is also president of the Asian Tennis Federation and there is a provision to set aside wildcards for the Games for Asians. Surely Khanna would have considerable say to influence those.
In case Khanna is able to swing one Paes’ way, then Bhupathi’s stand may weaken as the possibility of no Indian participation in the doubles event would disappear. Apart from asking for a wildcard for the pair of Sania Mirza and Sunitha Rao in women’s doubles, even a request for Paes in singles is being considered. A total of eight ITF places are available in the doubles draw of 32 with 24 entries being direct.
The ball is now firmly in Bhupathi’s court as Paes too has spoken out at length after being silent all along on the challenge to his authority as captain just a few months ago. Paes obviously has the backing of the entire sports administrative set-up in this country, courtesy Khanna’s extensive meetings with the IOA and Sports Ministry functionaries. Bhupathi now runs the risk of being marginalised and maligned amongst the very people he will have to keep dealing with over the years in his capacity as an event holder as well as player promoter. The tennis aspect of his arguments is quite lost on the powers that be.
Khanna is also in a stronger position to take on Bhupathi with the AITA elections having been reduced to a no-contest. There were no challengers and the present office-bearers have been retained again unanimously. That may well make for the present aggressive stance compared to the less vocal one when the issue of the players challenging Paes’ Davis Cup captaincy had surfaced.
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