The sudden withdrawal of Leander Paes, who has won five gold medals in the Asian Games, has triggered some pertinent questions in the tennis circles.
“Why did Leander wait till the last second,’’ is the question in everyone’s lips, and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan expressed it without any hesitation in his own way, “how does Leander get to wait till the 11th hour before deciding?”
“We should have had a reserve named”, continued Jeevan on Friday, quite upset about a slot going waste in the six-member Indian men’s squad.
“Sumit Nagal for doubles is a joke”, said Jeevan, unable to hide his disappointment.
There was no doubt about the singles ability of Sumit, the Asian Indoor Games champion, who had won a Challenger in Bengaluru.
But, with Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran taking the two available singles slots for India in the Asian Games, in the absence of Yuki Bhambri, Sumit getting the nod was indeed a shock.
For the record, Sumit Nagal had won the Wimbledon junior doubles title in 2015, but it was felt that in the highly competitive doubles field, India had better options in Purav Raja, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan.
Saketh Myneni who had won the mixed doubles gold with Sania Mirza and the doubles silver with Sanam Singh in the last edition in Incheon, would have been the ideal choice, as he is exceptional in singles as well, but he has been grappling with injury and a slump in ranking.
“Last time Divij Sharan stepped in when Somdev Devvarman pulled out”, Jeevan recalled about the turn of events with the Indian team in the Asian Games in Korea, which featured an additional team event.