The Indian tennis pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have been in the eye of a storm over the last fortnight and there was no let-up even on a cool, wet day at Wimbledon. The Bengaluru duo needed just an hour-and-half to win their opening round encounter but given the prevailing circumstances in Indian tennis, the post-match briefing proved more energy sapping than the battle on court. With the unsavoury tennis saga being played out in the open, the duo were grilled on the Bollywood-style twists and turns in the tale concerning the Indian team at the Olympics.
Following Sania Mirza’s emotional outburst on Tuesday, her regular mixed doubles partner Bhupathi backed the Hyderabadi for standing up for herself while making his intentions clear. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m committed to her. We’re playing here, and if we get a chance to, we will play the Olympics. In Sania’s statement she has clearly stated that we have won two Grand Slam titles together, one of them as recently as two weeks ago. Now they have to decide what it is they want to do, win a medal for India or as Sania said, keep one player (Paes) happy,” Bhupathi said.
Dwelling on the anti-Paes drift among the players, the 37-year-old said, “Everyone seems to think that I’m manipulating and pulling the strings for extremely individual and successful players like Sania, Rohan and Somdev. It’s not true. People need to ask hard questions. Being the No.1 player in India, he (Paes) definitely deserves to go to the Olympics, but he deserves to go with someone who wants to play with him.”
Such has been the script of this tennis drama, that a question on Bollywood seemed inevitable.
“If it’s made into a movie I would love to play the role of Mahesh,” said Bopanna in lighter vein, when asked by a journalist whether the current scenario was fit enough for a movie.