The war between AITA and players involving Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes is getting murkier as Bhupathi and Bopanna stand firm on their decision despite the AITA exerting pressure to get the two to climb down from their stand of playing the 2012 London Olympics \u2018together or not at all\u2019, says a report in The Times Of India. On Monday, Bhupathi and Bopanna made it clear once more to AITA that while they were committed to representing India in the London Games, neither was willing to break up his partnership to play alongside Leander Paes. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the clouds of a possible two-year ban and disciplinary action hanging over the world No. 7 pairing, Bhupathi and Bopanna refused to blink, putting in writing their stand of wanting to go to the Olympics as a team,\u201d says the report.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Sunday, Bhupathi questioned the AITA’s stand, saying, \u201cLeander Paes chose to break our combination at the end of 2011, despite knowing 2012 was an Olympic Year and despite a strong 2011 on our part. Being privy to this the AITA did not step in once at any point in the last eight months.\u201d He signed off by saying that he remained available to play for India with Bopanna. <\/p>\n
Reacting to Sports Minister Ajay Maken\u2019s suggestion that two men\u2019s doubles teams should be sent to the London Olympics to break the Mahesh Bhupathi\/Rohan Bopanna-versus-Leander Paes deadlock, the 39-year-old Paes has said it will be unfair to him if he doesn\u2019t get the best partner available despite being the country\u2019s top doubles player, says a report in The Indian Express.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Bharat Oza, the newly elected AITA secretary general, Paes said: \u201c…We have laid down our differences in the past and had a successful doubles partnership on the ATP Tour and in the Davis Cup. The three of us had signed an agreement with the AITA to play unconditionally for the country. Besides, it is an honour to represent our country and one would have thought that this would have been a motivation for them to accept the AITA selection decision and participate in the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I sent you (AITA) my unconditional participation in the Olympics, I believed we would put our best team forward for a gold medal. By setting up a second team, as suggested by some, you would create a situation where your No.1 player and the only Indian in the top-10 ATP doubles rankings would have to play with the No. 5 Indian player (Somdev Devvarman). This would not be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The war between AITA and players involving Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes is getting murkier as Bhupathi and Bopanna stand firm on their decision despite the AITA exerting pressure to get the two to climb down from their stand of playing the 2012 London Olympics \u2018together or not at all\u2019, says a report […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[5293,309,376,280,336,203],"class_list":["post-7578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers","tag-aiat","tag-ajay-maken","tag-leander-paes","tag-london-olympics","tag-mahesh-bhupathi","tag-rohan-bopanna"],"yoast_head":"\n