Dubai: The bid by India’s Leander Paes to enter the record books for becoming the only player to play in seven Olympic Games may all depend on his teammates after all.
Paes, who turns 43 next month, won a singles bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
He made his Games debut at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and since then, has participated in all five editions making him the first Indian and only tennis player to compete at six Olympic Games.
Indian tennis was in the limelight for all the wrong reasons at the 2012 London Games with the senior players getting into an acrimony with Mahesh Bhupathi preferring Rohan Bopanna rather than play alongside a higher-ranked Paes.
However, this year the All India Tennis Association (AITA) has literally put the ball in the players’ court. “We will be allowing the players to choose their doubles partners in the men’s and mixed doubles,” Indian team coach Zeeshan Ali told Gulf News.
“During the last Olympics we had our issues, but this time we thought it is better to allow the players to make the call,” he added.
For the singles, the top 56 players in the world rankings as of June 6 on the WTA and ATP tours will qualify directly. However, entry will be limited to four players per country. In the doubles, 24 teams will automatically make it based on rankings, subject to a maximum of two teams per NOC. Players in the top-10 of the doubles rankings could reserve a place, provided they have a partner to compete with.
The tennis tournaments at the 2016 Games will witness 172 players contesting five medals — singles and doubles for men and women and mixed doubles — and will be staged at the Olympic Tennis Centre from August 6-14.
This summer’s Olympic Games will be the 15th edition of tennis at the Olympics — excluding the 1968 and 1984 Games when tennis was a demonstration sport — and the eighth since 1988, when the sport was officially brought back into the Games.
