Leander Paes has been included in the Davis Cup team for the Asia-Oceania Group-1 tie against China, to be staged on outdoor hard courts in Tianjin, on April 6 and 7.
It is an interesting development after the war of words when Paes was not played in the tie against Uzbekistan last year.
“Great chance. We are going with the full team,” was the sharp comment from captain Mahesh Bhupathi, who made it clear that he would not elaborate any further and would make his next comment only at the draw ceremony.
With the new format allowing a country to field a five-member team, the selectors, with former Davis Cup captain S.P. Misra as the chairman, chose the 44-year-old Paes to partner Rohan Bopanna for the doubles rubber.
“It is always a honour to play for India. I respect Rohan’s talent and am looking forward to playing with him against the Chinese. I am looking forward to wearing the Blue again,” said Paes, who has been on a hot pace in recent weeks.
Great form
The tremendous run by Paes, right from the Australian Open when he made the third round with Purav Raja, apart from the successes in the Challenger circuit and the Tour event in Dubai, convinced the selectors that he was a better choice than Divij Sharan who had a marginally better rank.
Not to disappoint the 44th ranked Divij, the All India Tennis Association has announced him as the reserve.
The top three singles players in terms of rankings — Yuki Bhambri (110), Ramkumar Ramanathan (135) and Sumit Nagal (223) — picked themselves, even though there was a case for Prajnesh Gunneswaran ranked 235.
The 19-year-old Sumit possibly clinched his berth with the $100,000 Challenger title in Bengaluru, when he beat Yuki along the way.
Purav, who was in partnership with Bopanna against Canada in the World Group play-off tie last September, went out of the reckoning with a rank of 62, as compared to Paes’ 46.
With s 90-35 win-loss record, Paes had last played a Davis Cup against New Zealand last year in Pune, when Vishnu Vardhan became his partner following the last minute withdrawal by an injured Saketh Myneni.
Reservations
Even though everything looked smooth, there was indeed a storm brewing quietly. The AITA conceded as much in its statement, in which it mentioned that the executive committee, which met on Saturday, had “noted the reservations expressed by some of the players”.
The executive committee directed the selection committee to “select the best team irrespective of the reservations. Any issues between the players had to be settled in a nice manner, in the interest of the nation, between themselves,” the AITA had remarked.
Apart from Misra, the selection committee had Balram Singh, Nandan Bal, Rohit Rajpal and Zeeshan Ali as the members.
The AITA secretary-general Hironmoy Chatterjee, joint-secretaries Suman Kapur and Anil Dhupar, apart from treasurer Raktim Saikia, also joined the selection committee meeting held on Sunday, possibly to ensure the execution of the AITA’s line of action.
