After months of squabbling, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have finally agreed to team up for the Beijing Olympics and will play a couple of tournaments together to gear up for the mega event. "AITA secretary Anil Khanna had a meeting with both the guys and they have agreed to play together to win a medal for the country. They will also play two tournaments before the Olympics to prepare for it," All India Tennis Association (AITA) Executive Director Ranbir Chauhan said. Paes and Bhupath met Khanna in Paris where they are participating in the French Open. The development comes within weeks of Bhupathi's complaint to AITA that Paes was not cooperating in the preparations for the Olympics. Bhupathi had in fact asked AITA to allow him to team up with Rohan Bopanna for the quadrennial event. Paes had termed Bhupathi's comments ‘silly’ and there were concerns about whether the duo would pair up for what would perhaps be their last Olympics."Just before going to Beijing and after Cincinnati, Lee and Hesh will get together for a few days training programme with Leander's coach Rick Leach and Mahesh's coach Scott Davidoff and a trainer," Khanna stated elaborating on the duo's preparations."Both players will reach Beijing for the opening ceremony and will have a training session in Beijing for a few days before the tennis competition begins in Beijing," he added.The compromise has been reached after both players engaged in a fresh round of war of words a couple of weeks ago with Bhupathi saying that he did not wish to team up with Paes.Bhupathi alleged that Paes was not cooperating in the preparations for the Olympics and said it would be better to pair up with Rohan Bopanna in such a scenario.Paes, however, maintained that he and Bhupathi could still make a successful team at the Olympics and their best shot at a medal was together, not against each other.
