Stage set to seal Beijing Olympics pairing

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, estranged former doubles champions, are finally set to sit across for some mitigation engineered by AITA secy Anil Khanna, but the spat is too strong to mend, feel many

NEW DELHI: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are finally set to sit across the table on Monday night in a meeting engineered by AITA secretary Anil Khanna.  Word coming over the tennis grapevine suggests that the acrimony of last month which was plastered loud and large in the press, has really not abated. 
 
Meanwhile Paes, it is learnt, has chosen to tone down his stand of not playing with Bhupathi on the Tour. The AITA feels that the senior player has come around to meeting Bhupathi half-way on the latter’s legitimate demand of going into the Olympics with some matches under their belt.

There can really be no substitute for the grind of competition to work out the rust in the partnership which was, frankly, a shade of its former self when the two took the court against Japan in the Davis Cup tie in April. Though at the time both had insisted that the duo played as well as was required and would have had no problem cranking their game several notches higher if the need would have arisen. The fact that this was the first match they played as a team since the December 2006 Doha Asian Games surely rankles in the run-up to the Beijing Games.

There seems to have been no change in Bhupathi’s stance but it remains to be seen how he takes to the change in Paes’ outlook. Earlier, Paes had said that playing together on the Tour would only add to the differences between the two as it is a well known fact that they do not get along well. That is, of course, putting it mildly.

Things have come to such a pass that the two can’t even stand the sight of each other. Their paths criss-cross on the doubles Tour but not a word is exchanged between the two. He seems to have made the compromise in an effort to convince Bhupathi to come around.

The crucial component in this whole situation will be the deal-making skills of Khanna who had earlier convinced the dissenting Davis Cup players to toe the federation’s line even though they had refused to play the Japan tie under Paes’ captaincy in April.
The final say on the whole matter is, of course, out of Khanna’s hands as the two rockstars of Indian tennis cannot be bullied to do what AITA thinks is best.

The issue of the AITA’s proposed training camp in July will also be a contentious one as Bhupathi has openly debunked the idea.