Bhupathi on Paes Davis Cup axe: It was a very tough call

Mahesh Bhupathi's first official day as non-playing captain of the Indian Davis Cup side coincided with, perhaps, the toughest in his professional career too — he made the decision to drop Leander Paes from the team

Non-playing Captain of Indian Davis Cup team, Mahesh Bhupathi during a practice session of the team, ahead of the tie against Uzbekistan. Pic/PTI

Bangalore: Mahesh Bhupathi's first official day as non-playing captain of the Indian Davis Cup side coincided with, perhaps, the toughest in his professional career too — he made the decision to drop Leander Paes from the team.

Are some old wounds still bleeding? Some may think so. "It obviously was a very tough decision. That's why I wanted to wait till the last minute to make a call. I wanted three singles players and a doubles specialist. Every captain has a different style. I run the team the way I think it should be run and I thought this was the best choice," said Bhupathi.

Justifying Paes' omission, Bhupathi added: "The conditions at the KSLTA are really fast. So, we are going in with four big servers. All four boys here can serve at 130+ mph and we want to take advantage of that." Paes has just won an ATP tournament in Mexico, but Bhupathi was in no mood to chalk in that factor. "It was not just about serve. Balaji and Bopanna have been playing a lot of sets. Unfortunately for Paes, yesterday was his first day and he played three games before it started raining. Considering, I have two debutants I was not willing to take that risk," he said.

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