Veteran Indian tennis player Leander Paes has pulled out of the Asian Games just couple of days before the tournament begins in Indonesia. According to a statement sent to PTI, Paes pulled out because of the absence of a double specialist to play with him, despite repeated requests to the All India Tennis Association.
“It is with a heavy heart that I have to say that I will not be playing the upcoming Asian Games in Indonesia,” Paes said in a statement sent to PTI.
“Despite my repeated requests, from so many weeks in advance, it is sad that we have not been able to put a doubles specialist in the team for a credible second doubles pairing for the Asian Games,” he said.
The 45-year-old was asked to team up with either Ramkumar Ramanathan or Sumit Nagal, both singles players, after AITA agreed to pair country’s top doubles players Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan in the men’s doubles, on their request.
While Ramkumar is primarily a singles player and plays doubles occasionally, Nagal is on a terrible losing streak, having nine straight first round matches on the Pro circuit, coming into the Asian Games.
Paes has questioned why AITA didn’t field two specialist doubles teams.
“Ramkumar Ramanathan is a very good player, and I would love to play doubles with him,” he said. “But considering that he has a golden chance to win the singles medal, it is not fair to distract him from his best event.”
As of this week, India have five players in top-100 – Bopanna (32), Sharan (38), Paes (79), Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (88) and Purav Raja (90). The next best two players – N Sriram Balaji (112) and Vishnu Vardhan (115) were also in top-100 some weeks ago. However, none of them made it to the Asian Games squad.
Too late to find replacement
The AITA hit back at Paes’s last-minute decision, saying it is now too late to name a replacement.
“Our job is to select players and if someone chooses not to participate the least he can do is inform us. Now it’s too late for us to field a replacement since accreditations are closed. We have no option but to work with the team we have. Of course we will miss Leander’s experience in such a major event but by making this a last-minute affair he’s actually robbed a deserving player of an opportunity,” Hiranmoy Chatterjee, secretary general of AITA, was quoted as saying by ESPN.
Paes went on to add that his absence will help the team, more than affect their chances and was confident of a doubles medal. “Rather than affecting the team’s chances, I believe that my absence would only help the rest to play more events, be it doubles or mixed doubles,” he said.
“I have been in constant touch with captain Zeeshan Ali and have had long discussions with him with regard to Rohan Bopanna’s injury.
“I am happy to learn that Rohan has recovered and as such a doubles medal for India is almost assured. Without his availability it wouldn’t have been fair for me to withdraw as that may have impacted a possible gold from tennis.”
Paes was already miffed at his exclusion from the Indian government’s Target Olympic Podium scheme but had made himself available for the Asian Games, where he has won eight medals, from 1990 to 2006. He won a singles bronze (1994), three gold in men’s doubles (2002 and 2006 with Bhupathi and 1994 with Gaurav Natekar) a men’s team gold (1994), a mixed doubles gold with Sania Mirza (2006), a mixed doubles bronze with Sania Mirza (2002) and a team bronze in 1990.