The Great Indian Tennis Crisis

Paes and Bhupathi fall out yet again and Indian Tennis loses out; Yet Again. It’s almost a throwback to your schooldays when two kids got into a fight and then nobody would end up playing ball as a result. Sometimes you’d wish the kids would just put their differences aside for the better interests of everybody else.

This time it’s both Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna who have refused to play with Leander Paes for the upcoming London Olympics. Bhupathi flat out told the AITA (All India Tennis Association) that he would not be available for the Olympics if paired with Leander Paes and that he hasn’t even spoken to Leander since November last year.

This little squabble means that Paes will now be forced to pair up with a highly inexperienced junior for the Olympics. This could be either Yuki Bhambri (Rank 306) or Vishnu Vardhan (Rank 207); since the more experienced Somdev Devvarman has been ruled out due to injury. This has left the AITA infuriated as they believe such a move would be a slap on the face of a sportsman as respected in the International Tennis Circuit as Leander Paes.

Lashing out at both Bhupathi and Bopanna, AITA said, “It should be understood that two players cannot make a pact with each other to keep the number one player out and publicly suggest in media that the No.1 player should go to the Olympics with No. 5.”

Understandably, Leander Paes, still a little sore from the rejection, communicated to the AITA that it would be meaningless to send 2 teams from India to the Olympics.

This in my opinion is the Great Indian Tennis Tragedy. We aren’t exactly a country swimming in Olympic medals. Olympic glory has pretty much eluded Indian Tennis with the exception of Leander Paes’ bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics. So when the chance comes along we should truly be taking a good hard swing at it. This time round, we’ve got the opportunity to send 2 teams to the Olympics in hope of getting a medal that this country is yearning for. Having 2 teams represent us increases the probability of us getting that medal. I’ve done the math. It checks out. Furthermore, sending only a single team would deprive 2 Indian Tennis players of possibly the greatest sporting experience in the world.

While it may not have been right on the part of Bhupathi and Bopanna to reject playing with Leander Paes outright, I believe that Leander should be the bigger man and proceed to at least participate in the Olympics by playing with a junior. This would not only be in the best interest of the nation as a whole, but also for the junior playing alongside Paes. Representing his country at the Olympics alongside a Tennis Great like Leander Paes will certainly do his game no harm.

In an ideal world, Paes and Bhupathi would be pairing up once again to make for the best possible attempt at an Olympic medal. However, owing to the topsy-turvy rollercoaster ride that is the Paes-Bhupathi relationship, Indian Tennis is far from the ideal world. Sometimes you just wish that the 2 kids just put their differences aside so we can all play ball.