Even as Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are in the eye of the storm following the latter's criticism of the AITA's decision to pick the duo to play together for the London Olympics, there is a third party who stands to lose in this mess
Rohan Boppana, ranked 12 in the world doubles ranking, is more than certain to miss the London Games.
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An unfortunate irony considering the 32-year-old Bangalorean had announced at the start of the season that he was splitting from his successful Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi to pair with Bhupathi with the intention that the duo will play together at the Olympics.
Rohan Boppana
Bopanna though could well have caused his own downfall. According to sources, Bopanna and Paes exchanged emails at the start of the season with a view to forging a partnership keeping the Olympics in mind.
However, as selection matters are purely the AITA’s call, nothing concrete came out of the Lee-Bops interaction, following which Bopanna and Bhupathi got together, announcing that they were doing so to play together in London.
Now, according to sources, Paes was keen on partnering Bopanna for the Games. However, Bopanna shot that idea down when he and Bhupathi told AITA that they were only available for selection as a team.
Now, with the AITA picking Paes and Bhupathi as a pair, Bopanna stands to miss the Olympics altogether. Unfortunate, considering Bopanna had not one but two opportunities to showcase his big serves in London, but chose to double-fault instead.u00a0
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