Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna heaved a sigh of relief as the All India Tennis Association today allowed the duo to team up for the upcoming London Olympics after both of them adamantly refused to partner Leander Paes in the mega-event.
“We are excited that we will be playing together at the Olympics and our sole focus is now on our team’s preparations for the Games,” they said in a joint statement.
“We are delighted to have been nominated as a team to the Men’s Doubles event at the Games of the XXX Olympiad. The events of the last few days have been extremely challenging for all concerned, but we respect them as necessary steps in this process.
“In making each of our decisions, we were guided by our strong convictions regarding what we believed was fair and we are pleased that this is reflected in the outcome. We are greatly appreciative of the support we have received from across the world,” the statement added.
As far as AITA’s decision to pair up Leander with Sania Mirza for the mixed double event, Bhupathi said, “I think we need to wait till 28th (of this month) if Sania qualifies.
“Obviously our first step was to go to London. We are hoping that she gets a wildcard and goes to London as well. They (AITA) told me that it depends on our performance in Wimbledon also.”
In the past, both Leander and Bhupathi kept aside their differences to represent the country, but things seemed to have reached a point of no return this time around.
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