Even though leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna were outgunned and outplayed on Saturday by the Czech Republic duo of Radek Stepanek and Adam Pavlasek, Paes acknowledged that he thinks they can win a medal next year at Rio Olympics but they need to build the belief in them to do so.
“I have got a phenomenal partner by my side in Rohan, who was a finalist at the US Open (2010), semi-finalist at Wimbledon this year. He is a phenomenal tennis player. I believe in him. That’s why I wanted to play with him in the whole season of 2012 and that’s why I want to play Olympics with him because I do believe that we could win an Olympic medal together,” said Paes.
Bopanna agreed that it did not matter whether they played together in the next one year before Olympics.
“last time, I played with Mahesh (Bhupathi) and we played the whole six months. For me, I have committed to a Romanian partner (Florin Mergea) right now. I have finally found a partner to do well on the tour after struggling with so many partners.
“So want to stick with that and then when we have an opportunity we will play together. Depending on how well we are doing in the tours, we can play together at Washington and then there is a master series in Toronto before the Rio Olympics,” said Bopanna.