The Sports-India Community

jic wrote:How about giving Aisam and OCI or PIO card and have the Mysore-Pak play for India. That way we can forget the aging prima donna's Lee and Hesh. Somebody adopt Aisam and sponsor him!

Ya man.. lets do it!

As per reports Hesh was forced to go with Bopanna since Lee wanted to play with a younger partner for next year and play Queens and Wimbledon before the Olympics with Hesh whereas Hesh wanted to play the whole season with the same partner.

the situation is becoming murkier by the day, though all of them are putting up a brave front. The proximity of rb and mb is a very well known fact. The only reason mb was not playing with rb was ,latter's ranking and now when rb is almost as good as lee/hesh, hesh wasted no time in joining hands with rb, thus isolating lee. this is going to have serious repercussions, as far as our olympic team and davis cup is concerned.

In any case I firmly believe that for our zonal ties there is no place for lee/hesh, in davis cup. rb and sd are good enough and then you can include all three- yuki, karan and vishnu in the team. you have to prepare for the future and this is the best time to do that. no more singles for rb, who should be there only for doubles.

I think lee/hesh has already played their last doubles match together.

Accordingly to reports the break up resulted out of Lee's insistence to play with a young partner. He infact approached Bops but it didn't work out. Bhupathi wanted to have a regular partner and since Lee wasn't available, he chose Bops keeping Olympics in mind. Lee is responsible for this fiasco more than anybody else!

If you put 2 and 2 together, lee wanted a young partner for olympics. During asian games doha, also he wanted to play with rohan. So now again lee approached rohan, who is actually close to mahesh and is also managed by globosport. So mahesh got irritated and retaliated by teaming up with rohan for the entire year and thus isolating lee completely.

In fact most of the frictions , between lee and hesh are because of lee, though to some extent even mahesh is responsible. but the fact is two big guns of indian tennis have proved to be too immature and irresponsible duds.

Now they should stop giving interviews but here Mahesh spoke in detail in his interview.

Bhupathi fails to clear air about 2012 Olympic partner

Veteran Indian tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi claims it was Leander Paes's decision to end their much-hyped reunion within a year as he felt that they "were possibly a little too old on the tour and not able to gel on a consistent basis".

"I guess everyone has their own opinion. Leander just felt that we were possibly a little too old on the tour and not able to gel on a consistent basis. He felt that our team needed fresh legs on either side. That was his point of view. Unfortunately, that's the crux of the equation today."

"It's very hard for me to explain that decision. It wasn't my decision. When we started playing last year the Olympics was a goal, Australia and the World Championships were a goal, and I had a feeling we'd see our careers into the sunset. But, as I said, Leander has a difference of opinion and I have to respect that. We're professionals and at the end of the day we both love to compete and to win and we do whatever it takes to get the best out of both of us."

"We had a chat once we got back from Shanghai and since then we've been playing well and practicing pretty well in Mumbai so there was definitely no fall-out. He has his opinion and I've got to respect that. Because of that, we've both found new partners for next year."

"I'm a firm believer that the Olympics is the biggest stage and for that you need to prepare really well because the hardest thing in life is to win an Olympic medal. Like I said, we'll see how it goes. The best team has to go for India; there's no two ways about it."

"You guys seem as confused as the management of Indian tennis today. The Olympics is seven months away. There are a lot of points to be defended, matches to be won, and I think the positive note for India tennis is that they have three options unlike the last few options when they only had two. I'm sure they'll make the best decision and send the best team in."

Leander/Somdev is obviously the other option for a second Indian pair at the London Olympics. Certainly worth a try.

Just spoke to one of the top guys in Indian tennis and got to know that the reason given for their split is not what is being said in the media, it is just the official version. It was not a tennis decision but was more of politics which led to the split. Will try to get the real reason for their split.
Also he said that as of now AITA and IOA'S choice is leehesh but can change if Bopanna and Bhupathi do well. We will get to know about it in April as to which team will be representing us in Olympics.

Unless you heard the details of what kind of politics, I would disregard what even "top tennis people" rubbish as just politics. It's pretty standard for "top people" also to just say that everything is politics. I heard it about their very first split too, quite immediately. It wasn't politics then. It may well be not, even now. If you heard details, please hint about something.

Of course, I am sure that there is more than what has been said in the media, but at least this time, I felt there is quite a bit of truth to what both Lee and Hesh said, when we put 2 and 2 together. There could be more than that, sure. That could be power politics or business angles too.

There is no doubt that these two both want a medal truly badly. I don't think just politics would cause them to mess up their Olympics plans, if they felt that they themselves are the best medal prospect pair. There are tennis reasons and disagreement too, for sure.

Jay

All celebrity marriages are flimsy, and these two are no exception. Let's not wring our hands too much. Even if they play together, their chances are not terrific given the depth of doubles competition in the Olympics. They likely improve their chances playing with each other as opposed to other partners, but by how much is a big question as both are in the twilight of their careers.

The chances of Rohan and Mahesh partnering each other for Olympics are almost over. Either it will be the Indian Express or Rohan and Leander.
Rohan have been wanting to play with Leander, though they were suppose to team up before this new partnership of Rohan and Mahesh came into the picture but Mahesh interfered in the last moment and joined hands with Rohan. Now after the Chennai open final, Rohan has communicated his willingness to play with Leander and chances are that they might play together in the near future.

gautam wrote:The chances of Rohan and Mahesh partnering each other for Olympics are almost over. Either it will be the Indian Express or Rohan and Leander.
... Rohan has communicated his willingness to play with Leander and chances are that they might play together in the near future.

Really? How do you know this?

I haven't checked all the newspapers yet, but do you have a source for what you are saying, gautam? If it is plain speculation, please don't do that in definitive words. We don't want this forum to be blamed for starting rumors. Let us know. Jay

It's like a soap opera. Why would Rohan do that after one tournament where they did okay? Now people have started spreading all kinds of rumors and make-believes. All this makes me think, "WTF is going on?" And, I rarely swear!

jayakris wrote:I haven't checked all the newspapers yet, but do you have a source for what you are saying, gautam? If it is plain speculation, please don't do that in definitive words. We don't want this forum to be blamed for starting rumors. Let us know. Jay

Totally agree with this. Kindly site a source, else please please please avoid making such statements.