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.
Leander Paes enjoyed an all-win outing to enter the quarter-finals of the men's and mixed doubles at the US Open. However, it was a mixed day for Sania Mirza in the season's last Grand Slam in New York.
The All India Tennis Association on Friday selected Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi for the men's doubles event at the London Olympics, rejecting the latter's insistence on being paired with Rohan Bopanna in the mega-event next month.
Mahesh Bhupathi returned to Grand Slam action with a first-round win at the Australian Open but Leander Paes' bid fell flat at the first hurdle, in Melbourne, on Wednesday.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna saved a match point to breeze into the title clash of the ATP World Tour finale after defeating Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek via Super tie-breaker, in London on Sunday.
India's top doubles players Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna were dumped from the US Open men's doubles competition even as Sania Mirza progressed in the mixed doubles event with her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig.
Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek stormed into the semi-final with an unbeaten record as they overcame a stiff challenge from the Bryan brothers in their last Group A match in London.
The world no. 2 doubles player said he willbe flying to Orlando to be by his former partner's side.
Third seeds Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek began their campaign at the season-ending World Tour Finals with a straight sets victory over seventh seeds Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Roger, in Group 'A', in London, on Wednesday. The Indo-Czech pair beat the Pakistan-Dutch combo, runners-up at the Paris Masters last week, 6-4, 7-5.
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.
Leander Paes had much to cheer about at the US Open on Monday, having advanced to the quarter-finals of the men's doubles and semi-finals of the mixed doubles.
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.
Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek won the ATP Shanghai Masters, their third tour-level title of the season, after defeating Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna 6-7(7), 6-3, 10-5.
The Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna has set up a summit clash with Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek after both the pairs won their respective semi-final matches in the Shanghai Masters on Saturday.
Leander Paes won his eighth Grand Slam men's doubles title when he and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Rep[ublic beat the second seeded Austria-Brazil pairing of Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares in the US Open men's doubles final 6-1, 6-3 on Sunday.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna may meet Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek in the summit clash of the Shanghai Masters after reaching the semifinals of the elite ATP tournament on Friday.
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.
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Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek upset defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan to move into the men's doubles final of the US Open on Thursday. The pair, seeded fourth, bested the top seeded American dup 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek faltered at the final hurdle as they suffered an upset straight-set defeat at the hands of Alexander Peya of Austria and Brazil's Bruno Soares to finish runners-up at the ATP Japan Open in Tokyo on Sunday.
Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek outplayed Daniele Bracciali and Frantisek Cermak in straight sets to storm into final of the ATP Japan Open in Tokyo.
The last time Martina Hingis appeared in the Fed Cup for Switzerland she was a 17-year-old four-times Grand Slam champion with the world at her feet.
Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek overcame a second-set lapse to defeat Andy and Jamie Murray and enter the semi-finals of the US $1,280,565 ATP Japan Open, in Tokyo, on Friday. The top seeded Indo-Czech pair defeated the British brothers 6-4, 3-6, 10-2 in 77 minutes.
Top seeded duo Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek had to work hard before grinding down unseeded rivals Filip Polasek and Julian Knowle in the opening round of the ATP Japan Open, in Tokyo on Thursday.
The 43-year-old, whose longevity is a talked about tale in world tennis, said the line-up that Spain has presented for the Davis Cup tie against India is a must watch for every single budding athlete in the country.
Indian tennis star Leander Paes, who recently completed his career Grand Slam, was on Sunday chosen for 'Legend of Sport' award by NDTV, which announced the Spirit of Sport awards in New Delhi.
Leander Paes became the most successful player in the history of Davis Cup as he combined with Rohan Bopanna to not only grab a record 43rd win but also bring India back in tie against China, in Tianjin, on Saturday.
Top seeded pair of Leander Paes and Horia Tecau were ousted from the ATP Thailand Open after losing a hard-fought semifinal against Eric Butorac and Paul Hanley in Bangkok on Friday.
Chess world champion Viswanathan Anand on Thursday said that Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi should have sorted out their issues much ahead of the Olympics instead of washing their dirty linen in public just ahead of the London Games.
Heading into the London Games -- his fifth and probably last -- Mahesh Bhupathi, 38, says the wait for an elusive medal at the Olympics 'is extremely painful'.
Leander Paes and Horia Tecau overcame a stiff resistance from the Dutch pair of Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer to progress to the quarter-finals of theATP Thailand Open in Bangkok.
Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek upset Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6(1), 6-2 to win the Australian Open doubles title on Saturday and foil the American twins' bid for a record 12th Grand Slam crown.
Sania Mirza said the Olympics tennis selection row trained her relationship with Mahesh Bhupathi but she has left it behind to focus on winning a medal in mixed doubles with Leander Paes.
Insisting that it had not imposed a ban on Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) said that by sidelining the duo, it was sending out a message that indiscipline will not be tolerated at any cost.
Indian tennis stalwarts Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who were locked in a selection row for the London Olympics recently, saw their fortunes take different turns with the former reaching the third round of the men's doubles event while the latter crashed out of mixed doubles competition of the Wimbledon.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly on Saturday welcomed the decision by Leander Paes to participate in next month's Olympics after threatening to pull out for being paired with lower-ranked Vishnu Vardhan.
India and New Zealand will face off in a Davis Cup tie in September at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) stadium.
India's Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands registered a straight-sets victory to advance to the third round of the women's doubles at Wimbledon on Friday. The 13th seeded Indo-US duo scored a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over the unseeded French pair of Stephanie Foretz Gacon and Kristina Mladenovic in 55 minutes at the All England Club.
Faced with problem of plenty, India's Davis Cup coach Nandan Bal said, the doubles combination for the Davis Cup tie against New Zealand will be decided on the basis of players' fitness levels and weather conditions.
Sania Mirza, who got a wild card entry for the Olympics, indicated she has no problem in partnering Leander Paes in the mixed doubles event in London but hit out at the AITA for using her as a "bait" in the selection row.
Bringing in his wealth of experience, Leander Paes combined with debutant Purav Raja to keep India afloat by winning the do-or-die doubles rubber against Korea on Saturday, but it will take a super heroic effort to save the hosts from a defeat in the Davis Cup tie.
