Controversies have rattled Indian tennis in the run-up to the Olympics with leander Paes in the middle of storm but it also carries the country’s medal hopes from the mixed doubles pairing of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna when the event gets underway in the 31st Olympics Games here on Saturday.
Bopanna had earlier expressed his preference to partner lower ranked Saketh Myneni instead of Paes before All India Tennis Association intervened in the matter, and speculation here is that Paes refused to share a room with him at the Games Village.
Paes, who will be playing in his seventh straight Olympics, a first in tennis, checked in at the Games Village on the eve of the opening ceremony. He arrived late and was left high and dry with no room allotted to him before finally being given a room Thursday evening.
India’s Chef-de-Mission Rakesh Gupta clarified that Paes was always going to stay alone.
“He (Paes) was given a room and there’s no controversy at all. For a legend like him, Paes deserved a separate room for himself,” Gupta said, explaining that the Indian ace was playing a tournament in New York and hence the delay.
With Paes arriving late, Bopanna had to make arrangement for practice with Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic. He also teamed up with Sania Mirza while coach Zeeshan Ali paired up with the other women’s doubles player Pratharna Thombare, who is in her maiden Olympics, during practice.
The Indian duo are pitted against the Polish pair of Marcin Matkowski and lukas Kubot in the opening round on Saturday.