AITA exempts Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza from Asian Games NEW DELHI, SEPT. 10: Considering the ‘’special circumstances’’, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) has exempted Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza from representing the country in the Asian Games to be held in Incheon, Korea, from September 19. In a detailed statement issued here on Wednesday, the president of AITA, Anil Khanna pointed out the need for all the three players to be competing in the professional ATP and WTA events that clashed with the Asian Games. Multiple Grand Slam champion and the Olympic bronze medallist in Atlanta, Leander had slipped out of the top-10 in the world doubles rankings following an early exit in the US Open, and thus was forced to earn some points in the rest of the season to ensure that he would be able to enter the Australian Open next season. Equally, Sania Mirza, who had won a string of medals in the last three Asian Games, including the gold with Leander Paes in Doha, the bronze with him in Busan, apart from the individual silver in 2006, not to forget the mixed doubles silver with Vishnu Vardhan in the last edition in Guangzhou, has also been allowed to focus on the professional circuit, as she had to defend 1900 points in her attempt to make the year-end championship in Singapore. ‘’Rohan Bopanna is in a similar situation as two ATP events in which he is to participate are coinciding with the Asian Games. He is also defending points from Tokyo tournament’’, read the statement. ‘’Considering the very significant and important requirement of players, the AITA has decided to respect their requests and allow them to play the ATP/WTA tournaments so that they can have a respectable opportunity to represent the nation in the World Championships to be held at the end of the year’’, concluded Anil Khanna. While Sania’s place will be taken by the reserve player Snehadevi Reddy in the women’s squad, the men’s team could be depleted as reserve Divij Sharan had already taken Somdev Devvarman’s berth. It is understood that the entry rules may not allow any more replacements and thus the berths of Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna may not be filled, even though Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and R. Ramkumar, ranked in the top-300 in singles, have been thirsting to represent the country in the Asian Games.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 20:48:07 +0000
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