Almost a fortnight after he dropped the bombshell, announcing he would not like to pair up with Leander Paes at the Olympics, Mahesh Bhupathi has decided to give it one final shot. The decision came after a meeting with All India Tennis Association (AITA) secretary Anil Khanna and Paes in Paris late on Monday night. “The meeting went well, and since we both wanted to find a solution to do the best for the country, we have decided to play together at Beijing,” Bhupathi told The Indian Express. Both Paes and Bhupathi are in Paris for the French Open. Bhupathi had earlier said that he was “not willing to go into the Olympics under-prepared,” and that the lack of any communication or inclination on the part of Paes was responsible for his decision. “It’s just too late to play with Leander. He has made his plans clear for the lead-up to the Olympics, that he will play with Lukas Dlouhy so he can get enough points to make it to the Shanghai Masters. That means he doesn’t want to prepare with me for the Olympics,” Bhupathi had said.Warm-up eventsHowever, after Monday’s meeting, Mahesh said the duo will play together in a couple of tournaments — one on grass before Wimbledon and one after — besides training together for a week, before they leave for the Olympics. “We will be playing together at the Ordina Open in the Netherlands (grass court event) and the Indianapolis championships in the United States, which is a hard-court event. After that, we will be training together for a week in Los Angeles before going to Beijing,” Bhupathi said. The duo would be training under the supervision of Paes’s coach Rick Leach and Bhupathi’s trainer Scott Davidoff.The pair is considered among India’s realistic hopefuls for a medal at the event. Asked if the two events would be enough preparation for an event like the Olympics, Bhupathi was non-committal. “Something is better than nothing. At least we will be prepared to some extent, and we will try to do the best we can,” he said. The Bhupathi-Paes feud goes back a long way but came to a head at the Doha Asian Games in 2006, though they still managed to win gold. Bhupathi had declared after that that he would never play under Paes again. Most recently, there was an angry exchange of words during India’s Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan earlier this year, when Bhupathi supported the demand by other players to remove Paes as playing captain.Keeping focusHowever, Bhupathi refused to get into any controversy this time around, insisting that the main target was doing well at Beijing. “This is not my or his decision. This is a joint decision (to play together) in India’s best interests at the Olympics. The main issue was Beijing and my concern was lack of practice together. That has been sorted out now (to an extent).”But he refused to comment on the other issues that have long plagued the partnership, undoubtedly the most successful Indian pair in the sport on the international circuit ever. “We always had those issues,” he admitted. “But at the moment we are completely focussed on the Olympics,” he said. The deadline to change the Olympics pairing is June 9. Bhupathi said he had conveyed the decision to Rohan Bopanna, who he had said earlier he would prefer to play with.Paes and Bhupathi, both in their 30s, have not played together on the ATP circuit since 2000. Their best chance for an Olympic medal came in 2004 in Athens, where they lost a closely-contested bronze play-off. But Bhupathi said he believed they still had a chance to win in Beijing. “Of course we think we have a hope of winning at Beijing. If we did not believe we could do that, we would rather be home with our families,” said the man who has won the most Grand Slams for India.In an official statement to the media, Anil Khanna said: “Leander and Mahesh, being true patriots and professionals, have agreed to put in their best effort by pairing up for Beijing Olympics to win a medal for the country.”
