Holder and World number 17 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland faces a daunting task to retain his title as the 17th edition of ATP Chennai Open unfolds, on Monday, promising a keen tussle among top players.
Sports Minister Ajay Maken has questioned the All India Tennis Association's decision to pair feuding former partners Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi for the Olympics, asking why just one team is being insisted upon for the event where the country can send two.
Star player Sania Mirza has also joined Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) as one of its Vice Presidents, it was revealed on Sunday.
In a desperate attempt to get back to the Indian Davis Cup team, the 11 rebel players have sought intervention of Sports Ministry to resolve the crisis but their effort is unlikely to bear any fruit with the ministry categorically stating that it has "no role to play in selection matters".
Indian tennis faces a second major embarrassment in six months after negotiations between the association and disgruntled Davis Cup players failed ahead of their home tie against South Korea next month.
Tennis star Leander Paes's disastrous acting debut reminds of similar duds that Bollywood has seen over the years.
The Indian tennis association is refusing to be held to ransom by regular Davis Cup players, who have hinted at a possible boycott if their demands for a greater involvement in the running of the team are not met.
Sumit Nagal lived a dream when he took on one of the greatest players of all time at a packed Arthur Ashe stadium in a US Open first-rounder.
Indian challenge in the men's doubles competition of the Wimbledon ended on Thursday with both Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna losing their respective semi-final matches after being engaged in gruelling five-setters.
Somdev, ranked 68th in the world, will take on Germany's Denis Gremelmayr (ranked 110), while world No 60 Sania is drawn against France's Virginie Razzano, 38 places below her in WTA chart.
The Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are seeded third in the men's doubles, while compatriot Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, who picked their second ATP title at Halle, Germany, last week, are seeded fourth in the grass-court tournament.
Leander Paes too has been offered a wild card but not yet confirmed for the January 5 to 11 event in Chennai.
Stung by the two-year ban imposed on him, veteran tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi hit back at the All India Tennis Association on Tuesday, accusing the game's governing body of resorting to 'divide-and-rule' policy and said its 'dictatorial attitude' will be harmful for the future of Indian tennis.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Keen to settle the payment dispute involving elite tennis players at the earliest, the Sports Ministry on Saturday said it was willing to clear the dues even on receiving the minimum documentation from AITA.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna had to be content with a runners-up finish at the ATP Cincinnati Masters as they lost the summit clash in straight sets to Sweden's Robert Lindstedt and Romania's Horia Tecau.
Parupalli Kashyap created history by becoming the first Indian shuttler to reach the men's singles quarter-finals and Saina Nehwal too powered her way into the last-eight stage even as archer Deepika Kumari flopped miserably at the Olympics.
The seventh-seeded Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, whose insistence to play together sparked off a selection storm in the build-up to the Olympics, open their campaign in the Olympic men's doubles against Max Mirnyi and Alexander Bury of Belarus. The event will be held at Wimbledon from July 28. Seasoned pro Leander Paes and his unfancied partner Vishnu Vardhan take on Julien jean Rojer and Robin Haase of the Netherlands.
It would have been great for Indian tennis had Novak Djokovic decided to turn up in this week's Davis Cup tie in Bangalore, country's leading singles star Somdev Devvarman said.
Divij Sharan kept Indian interest alive at the Wimbledon Championships by reaching the men's doubles pre-quarter-finals with partner Marcelo Demoliner.
Sports minister Ajay Maken has refused to intervene in the selection crisis that has shaken Indian tennis, and left it to the All India Tennis Association to take a final call on the men's doubles combination for the London Olympics.
India's No 2 tennis player Karan Rastogi wants to win back his place in Indian Davis Cup squad and improve on his ranking this year.
Indian tennis player Sania Mirza on broke into the doubles top-10 for the first time in her career as she gained a place after the US Open, where she made the third round along with Russian partner Elena Vesnina.
Indian challenge ended at the ATP Rogers Cup as Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi conceded their doubles quarter-final match to top seeds Mike and Bob Bryan due to an injury to the Indian Davis Cupper.
Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi suffered a shock second-round exit at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament after losing to Czech Tomas Berdych and Florian Mayer of Germany 1-6, 6-7 (9) in the men's doubles event.
It's a story of a partnership that ensured Indian tennis a brief period of glory before it went awry.\nLeander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi joined forces in the mid-90s, peaked in 1999 - winning two and reaching the finals of all the four majors, inspired hopes among millions of Indians and then went separate ways.
The Indian challenge at the Australian Open ended after Rohan Bopanna and his Ukrainian partner Nadiia Kichenok were knocked out in straight sets in the quarter-final of the mixed doubles event. The Indo-Ukrainian pair went down 0-6, 2-6 to fifth seed Nikola Mektic and Barbora Krejcikova in a 47-minute encounter.
The Australian Open trophy continued to elude Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi as the re-united 'Indian Express' could not stop Mike and Bob Bryan from scoring a hat-trick of titles at the Melbourne Park on Saturday.
World chess champion Viswanathan Anand joined the Board of Directors of Olympic Gold Quest, which already has all time great Indian sportspersons like Geet Sethi, Prakash Padukone, P T Usha and Leander Paes, to give a boost to Olympic medal hopefuls.
Leander Paes and Sania Mirza looked like regular partners on the circuit as they demolished the Serbian pair of Ana Ivanovic and Nenad Zimonjic in the first round of the mixed doubles at the London Olympics, on Thursday and Paes had big praise for his partner after the win.
Becomes only third Indian to win a singles match at the Games.
Roger Federer does not have a clue about the turmoil that rocked Indian tennis before the Olympics but the world number one is quite sure that Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have a decent chance of winning a medal at the Games that start on Friday.
They are back! And how? A few months ago, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi made a brief attempt -- at the Bangkok Open last September -- at reunification, with the Delhi Commonwealth Games in mind. Both those attempts though ended in failure.
Tennis stars descended on Kolkata when a prelude to the Indian Premier Tennis League had legends like Martina Navratilova, Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi play in the Tennis Masters on Tuesday.
Shocked at the way Lakshya Sen succumbed to pressure in the men's singles badminton bronze medal play-off at the Paris Olympics, the legendary Prakash Padukone said it's high time players learn to withstand pressure, become accountable and start delivering results after receiving support.
The awardees included one Padma Vibhushan, 11 Padma Bhushan and 44 Padma Shri.
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna set up a mixed doubles quarter-final clash against each other at the Australian Open after winning their respective matches, in Melbourne.
Indian Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna and his Finnish partner Jarko Nieminin advanced to the second round of the men's doubles round at the Australian Open, defeating Spanish pair of Marcel Granollers and Sanitago Ventura 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in Melbourne on Friday. It took Bopanna and Nieminin an hour and 13 minutes to dump their opponents.
Somdev Devvarman became the first Indian player to make it to the final of Chennai Open when his fifth seeded German opponent Rainer Scheuttler withdrew from the semi-final encounter due to a wrist injury on Saturday.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances