Mahesh Bhupathi on Thursday insisted that the recent controversy involving the selection of players for London Olympics would not affect his game during the mega event.
“It won’t affect the game at the Olympics. Wimbledon is over and we are focussing on Olympics. Mentally, we are ready. If we didn’t think our chances were realistic, we wouldn’t be going there. All of us are professionals and we think we have a chance to contend and that is why we are going,” Bhupathi told reporters at a promotional event by Omega Watch, who are official time keepers for the London Olympics.
Bhupathi had only recently, blamed the tennis row, which saw him and his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna refusing to partner India no 1 (in doubles) Leander Paes at the Games, for the duo’s early ouster from the men’s doubles at the Wimbledon championships that ended last Sunday.
“We are hoping India can come up with a few medals in tennis and that is for sure. I am not Nostradamus, but I know we have seven realistic shots (in all disciplines) and hopefully, five or six of us can come through,” he said.
Bhupathi, who is leaving for London on Saturday, said he and partner Bopanna have been preparing for the event since last seven months.
“We are ready to go. As far as the expectation, the hardest win in an athlete’s life is an Olympic medal. We feel we have a shot as good as the rest. We need to play right and have some luck,” said the 38-year old player.
He admitted that the wait for an Olympic medal has been painful and long.
Keywords: AITA, tennis row, Mahesh Bhupathi, London 2012, London Olympics 2012
To be honest, it will require a number of huge upsets for any of the
Indian tennis teams to come anywhere near medal contention and it is
statistically improbable. What is rare happens rarely.
The likes of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer do not bother to play grand
slam doubles. They will however in London. The only reason these
players switched to doubles is that they recognised their limitations
and wanted to earn more easy money. In fact, of the current lot no one
except Paes has any real achievements. In many ways Paes is an
exception, particularly when playing for India.
For this very reason Bhupathi and Bopanna's intrigues are shameful for
the country at the biggest sporting stage in the world. I will be
happy to see them depart at the first round.
Fairness and justice demand that Paes+ will advance at least one more
round than Bhupathi+Bopanna.
Mahesh Bhupathi, after losing mix doubles at Wimbledon,he said couple of days back... his game was effected by the recent controversy involving the selection of players for London Olympics. Now surprisingly all is ok.... a double face guy.
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