The All India Tennis Association has finally reached a decision. Two men’s doubles teams from India will be competing at the 2012 Olympics in London. Bhupathi and Bopanna will be playing together as Leander Paes will have to settle with rookie Vishnu Vardhan.
Sania Mirza will be playing the mixed doubles with Leander Paes and not Mahesh Bhupathi, with whom she won the French Open recently.
Leander recently said that he would not team up with Yuki Bhambri or Vishnu Vardhan, and he is yet to comment on the latest development.
Vishnu Vardhan is ranked 207 in the ATP Doubles rankings and has won the bronze medal in Men’s doubles at the 2010 Asian Games. He also won the Silver Medal along with Sania Mirza in the same 2010 Asian Games. He has earlier said that he would consider himself lucky if he gets the chance to play alongside Leander Paes. The AITA has said that Vishnu “is the best player available without injuries right now.”
A few days ago, Leander Paes commented that he would “have no other option but to withdraw from the Olympics” if Bopanna and Bhupathi’s demands were given preference. He also added, “We cannot be condoning or rewarding the drama enacted by Mahesh and Rohan”.
Today is the last day to apply for the Olympic games and this, most likely, will remain the AITA’s final decision.
Meanwhile, AITA has applied for singles and doubles wildcard entries for Sania Mirza and a singles wildcard for Somedev Devvarman who has been out since January due to a shoulder injury.
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