Yuki Bhambri, making a comeback from an elbow injury, on Sunday qualified for the singles main draw of the Chennai Open.
The Indian Davis Cup team, whitewashed by formidable Spain in the World Group Play-off tie, were seeded second behind Kazakhstan in the Asia/Oceania Group 1.
Bopanna being the highest-ranked doubles player in the country is automatic choice for the doubles rubber.
In Paes's absence, seasoned Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni will do the doubles duty in the July 17-19 tie, to be held in Christchurch.
Mahesh Bhupathi, who is making a comeback to competitive tennis after an injury lay-off, won his first title in three years as he combined with Yuki Bhambri to clinch the Delhi Open while Saketh Myneni reached the singles final, in New Delhi, on Saturday.
Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna, who will represent India at the Rio Olympics as a team, may clash against each other at the Wimbledon pre-quarterfinals as they have been drawn in the top half of the draw at the men's doubles event. Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, seeded sixth, open their campaign against Croatian pair of Marin Draganja and Nikola Mektic.
As India gear up to host five-time champions Spain in a Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie, Saketh Myneni knows the enormity of the task at hand.
The captain may be loathe to the idea, but the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association defended the decision to slot the Davis Cup tie against Spain in the evening, saying the aim is to make the event more accessible to tennis fans and save Indian players from cramping.
India's Rohan Bopanna on Monday jumped four places to 12th in the latest doubles ranking chart. The soar in rankings was courtesy his title victory at the ATP Dubai 500 event.
India's captain Anand Amritraj said it was "initiation by fire" for both Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan as they pulled off victories in the opening singles of the Asia/Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie against South Korea, under testing conditions, in Chandigarh on Friday.
World No 1 Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Barbara Strycova were ousted from the women's doubles event after losing to top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets in the quarter-final of the US Open, in New York.
Tennis star Sania Mirza was disappointed as she arrived late and could not see the man-made marvel, Taj Mahal in Agra city.
Yuki Bhambri beat Croatia's Matija Ecotic in straight sets to advance to the second round in the US $50,000 ATP Lexington Challenger on Wednesday. Returning to complete Tuesday's unfinished rain-hit match, the Indian youngster conceded only two games, after the match resumed at 4-4, to win 7-5, 6-1.
India youngster Saketh Myneni clinched his maiden ATP Challenger level singles title after getting the better of Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan in a hard-fought three-set match at the Indore Open on Sunday.
World No 10 Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni suffered a shock straight set mauling at the hands of Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniell as India were left trailing 1-2 against New Zealand.
Walking out of the outside courts at the Balewadi stadium, his gait was assuring as he uttered, "no more singles for me".
Union Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas on Saturday made it clear that Saketh Myneni is "no less deserving" than Rohan Bopanna for the prestigious Arjuna award despite questions being raised about his merit.
Spain's World No 5 Rafael Nadal has been ruled out of opening singles rubber against India in their Davis Cup World Group play-off in New Delhi on Friday.
Sania Mirza has enjoyed a dream run in the history Indian tennis this year. With two Grand Slam titles, 10 ATP crowns, in the WTA rankings, the Hyderabadi star continues to be World No 1.
Reaping rewards of his consistent performance, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, on Monday, broke into men's singles top-100 for the first time in his career with a jump of six places that took him to 97.
Top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran booked a singles quarter-final berth at the Jinan Open with a hard-fought win over Chinese Taipei's Tung-Lin Wu.
Leander Paes and Matthew Ebden continued their winning streak, beating Jonathan Erlich and Andrei Vasilevski 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 to enter the doubles final at the $1,62,000 Bengaluru Open ATP Tennis Challenger, in Bengaluru, on Friday.
Tennis ace Sania Mirza expressed happiness over India winning five medals at the recently-concluded Asian Games at Incheon, although she felt many people did not expect them to do well with the team the country had sent.
Yuki Bhambri broke back into the top-200 after 15 months, thanks to a solid performance at the ATP Taipei Challenger, where he made the semi-finals to leap to number 186 in the latest rankings.
Top seeds Leander Paes and Raven Klaasen eased into the men's doubles final with a clinical win over Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez at the Chennai Open tennis tournament.
Struggling to cope with the windy conditions, Saketh Myneni suffered a tame defeat to end runners-up at the Delhi Open, in New Delhi on Sunday.
Rohan Bopanna returned to the country's Davis Cup squad after a two-year gap as AITA named a six-member team on Saturday, for the Asia/Oceania Group I contest against Chinese Taipei, starting January 31 in Indore.
Yuki Bhambri opted out of the upcoming Davis Cup match against Korea Republic after failing to recover from an elbow injury. His withdrawal will hand Ramkumar Ramanathan his debut in men's tennis' premier international team event.
Touching a new high, Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna on Monday became World No 3 player in the world with a jump of two places in the latest ATP ranking chart.
Ramkumar Ramanthan played his heart out before losing a tight second round singles match while Purav Raja and Divij Sharan bowed out of the men's doubles in the first round of the qualifiers at Wimbledon on Thursday.
India lost the opening tie of the Davis Cup World Group play-off against Spain after Ramkumar Ramanathan lost to Spain's Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 on a hot evening in Delhi on Friday.
Prajnesh is now ranked 102 in the men's singles rankings with a jump of seven places while Ankita leapfrogged 35 places to a career-high 168 in the women's singles.
Rohan Bopanna gained three places to be world number 21, and is now country's top ranked player in the ATP doubles chart.
India's Sania Mirza continues to top the women's double chart while her partner Martina Hingis of Switzerland maintained her second spot in the latest tennis WTA rankings issued on Monday. Sania is atop the list with 11395 points while Hingis has 11355 points in her kitty. Sania and Martina, the world number one women's doubles team, have stitched a 26-match winning streak together, which has brought them six titles in a row at the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing, WTA Finals and Brisbane. It is the longest winning streak since Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci's 25 in a row in 2012.
Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas shocked top seeds Marcelo Melo and Lukas Kubot to storm into the semi-finals of the Erste Bank Open
India cricketers Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma were, on Friday, conferred with the coveted Arjuna Award for this year and the previous year respectively by Sports Minister Vijay Goel in New Delhi.
World No 1 Sania Mirza was, on Monday, named captain of the Indian team for next year's Fed Cup while two six-member squads were announced by the AITA selection panel for the South Asian Games.
After being left out of the Davis Cup for the first time in 27 years, an angry Paes had on Thursday lashed out at Bhupathi, accusing his former partner of flouting selection criteria.
Nagal, who has played his best tennis this season, sent a confirmation to the All India Tennis Association (AITA) on Thursday night while Ramkumar had conveyed his availability a few days ago.
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