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Journalism of Courage
A showdown is on the cards in the long-running Mahesh Bhupathi versus Leander Paes saga.
A day after Paes hinted that it was Bhupathi8217;s lack of commitment that saw them lose the doubles and eventually their opening round game against Chinese Taipie, fresh trials for the individual events has been ordered by the AITA president Anil Khanna, who is present here.
Sources close to the team say that this unexpected call for trials is because of Bhupathi8217;s below par performance. Sequence of the events that followed yesterday8217;s defeat suggests that the fragile Paes-Bhupathi bond is about to break once again. Yesterday night Paes had a long discussion with the Khanna where they discussed the reasons for India being knocked out of the team event.
This morning Paes and Bhupathi had a spat and later in the evening Khanna announced that they needed to rethink on the composition of the team.
In case Paes does get a new partner after tomorrow8217;s trails, the future of the famous Indian Express partnership seems bleak. At Doha, they might have played their last match together.
