Vishnu Vardhan backs Paes-led team

Vishnu Vardhan, who was dropped from the Davis Cup squad for the South Korea tie by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) for being a part of a players’ revolt, said the rookies selected in the team instead will benefit a great deal playing alongside Leander Paes.

“The new team is very young and inexperienced. But I think they will benefit a lot playing with Paes, just like I did in the Olympics,” Vardhan told DNA. 

The AITA snubbed the revolting players, including Vardhan, and in turn chose to field a young team for the tie, including VM Ranjeet, V Malik and Purav Raja, with Ashwin Vijayaraghavan and Arjun Khade being the reserve players.  Vardhan said he was disappointed on being ignored for the Davis Cup tie starting on Friday, and added that he did not expect things to get as bad as they are now. “I thought we were just negotiating with AITA but I never thought things would get this bad. We players are constantly in touch and I hope it gets resolved soon,” Vardhan added.