Olympics and Indian tennis controversy: Breaking down the Rohan Bopanna vs AITA issue
Active Times For Printing Download Epaper from files section from bottom of this page
Bopanna accused AITA of misleading everyone by saying he still had a chance to make the Olympics with SumitNagal, after not making the direct ranking-based cut
Yet another Olympics, yet another controversy in Indian tennis.
As the world gears up for Tokyo 2020, the inevitable clash between players and the All India Tennis Association has reared its ugly head again.
Ahead of London 2012 and Rio 2016, the controversy was around team selection in the men's and mixed doubles. This time around too, it is centred around the doubles scenario.
Veteran doubles player Rohan Bopanna, on Monday, accused AITA on Twitter of misleading players, media and the government for making it seem like he still had a chance to make the Olympics with SumitNagal. The 41-year-old had failed to make the direct cut by the deadline because his ranking with preferred partner DivijSharan was not high enough.
His tweet was further shared by SaniaMirza who said that if true, this had robbed India of a shot at a medal in mixed doubles. Former players Mahesh Bhupathi and SomdevDevvarman also chimed in, highlighting the need to reform the national federation.
The AITA then released a statement saying they were only trying to help and did their best to get at least one more Indian player in to get a doubles team.
Read the full statements from Monday here: Tokyo 2020: RohanBopanna, SaniaMirza question qualification confusion, AITA clarifies
On Tuesday, Bopanna released a call recording of his conversation with Anil Dhupar, AITA Honourary Secretary General, where he said that International Tennis Federation had accepted the nomination. That seemed to be the bone of contention, as ITF had not actually accepted any such nomination. The date had passed, as Bopanna had mentioned, and the combined ranking of either pair was not good enough.
AITA then shared a detailed look at their email interaction with the ITF dated 16 July, a copy of which is with Scroll.in, where they requested a change in nomination and tried other means to get a men's doubles pair in.
