"Will he or will he not?"
That's the million dollar question concerning Paes partnering a relatively
inexperienced Vishnu Vardhan. Fears are that Paes might skip the Olympics
all-together. And that seems to be a worrying factor, with just a month to go
to the Olympics, there are doubts about India's highest ranked doubles player
participating in the games. Looking from the fans' point of view it looks
unfortunate to say the least, but hold on, Pairing up Bhupati-Bopanna might be
India's best chance for a medal. Here's why-
The whole country treasures the
memory of India's favourite Tennis duo Lee-Hesh playing together as a team,
winning matches in Grandslams, Davis Cup and so many other ATP events, we could
literally feel the vigour seeing their famous chest-bumps, whole nation was
proud of the Indian Express.
And despite personal issues, they came together to
give one last shot at the Olympics when they decided to play the 2011 season
together. But a strings of defeats in the later part of the season and bit of
other things led them to part their ways, with an indication that they were a
bit old together and needed younger legs to play with. However, AITA announced
their team as our doubles entry, and Mahesh quite openly ridiculing it, it was
pretty obvious that the issue wasn't just the age, it was a bigger issue.
Keeping in mind that doubles requires not only physical but (more importantly)
mental coordination between the players, it makes you wonder, was it the best of ideas
to see them as India's best medal prospect in tennis?
Bhupati-Bopanna, on the other hand
have been together for a few months, they are the best (however bleak) chance
of us winning a medal. That's what AITA did
when their primary (Lee-Hesh) and secondary(Lee-Bopanna) selections didn't work
out. Now on the other side- Somdev, Yuki Bhambri and Vishnu Vardhan were the probables
for getting selected as the second Indian doubles entry with Paes, selectors
showed their faith on the Asian Games mixed doubles silver medallist Vishnu. Which
given the circumstances, might have been the best foot forward as is Somdev
primarily considered as a singles player and Yuki was the least experienced of
the lot, hence leading to the selection of Vishnu Vardhan. One may consider it
to be a bit unfair on Leander, as India's only Olympic medallist (he won a bronze
in the Atlanta games in singles) and a prominent doubles player was given a
second stream player as his partner. But if you go by history, Ramesh Krishnan
partnered Leander when he was 19 in the year 1992, and Leander hasn't looked
back ever since. Playing with Leander might do wonders for a guy like Vishnu Vardhan
and India has to look beyond Paes and Bhupati both in their late 30's, thus
nurturing young talent now will only be helpful looking into the future.
Indian tennis is surely going
through tough times, the only thing that can make it better is Medal(s) at the
Olympics. As fans, its time we back our players in these tough times when its
most needed. The teams are selected and its possibly the best that could be
done, the focus should be on the court now and not off it. Let's be optimistic
about Leander's participation as this is the last go at Olympics he will get, a
guy like Vishnu Vardhan will have a great exposure at the games, and
Bhupati-Bopanna have their point to prove too! The first serve was a fault but
Indian tennis contingent is experienced enough not to make a double fault. When
the odds are against you, it brings the best out of you, hope its the same with
our tennis teams!
No comments:
Post a Comment