India names tennis pairs for Olympics

NEW DELHI — The All India Tennis Association on Thursday asked Leander Paes to accept being teamed with Vishnu Vardhan in a solution to a selection row that also includes picking Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna as a second doubles pair for the London Olympics.

Bhupathi and Bopanna both refused to play with Paes at the Games, who threatened to pull out on Wednesday if he did not get to choose his partner because he is the highest-ranked Indian doubles player.

But AITA president Anil Khanna said Thursday that the national body wants Paes to accept his pairing with the little-known Vardhan.

The AITA said Paes would also partner Sania Mirza in mixed doubles if India’s leading women’s player received a wild card entry in singles and therefore can play in mixed doubles. The wild cards for the Olympics are to be decided by next Thursday.

India had originally picked Paes and Bhupathi, a former top-ranked pair in the world, as the country’s only men’s doubles combination for the Olympics. — Agencies