Paes gets Sydney wild card in singles

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 10: The past couple of months have been anything but good news for Leander Paes, sitting and recouping in Orlando, Unite...

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 10: The past couple of months have been anything but good news for Leander Paes, sitting and recouping in Orlando, United States. And now suddenly, things have begun happening. First, the news that Paes will finally be getting back together with Mahesh Bhupathi and now the icing on the cake — Leander has been given a wild card into the singles for the Sydney Olympics.

Despite being injured, the fact that he is a medallist from the previous Games and that he has always performed well while playing for his country — the Davis Cup — probably went in Paes’ favour.

Andre Agassi, the defending champion, is part of the US team for the Games, while Sergi Bruguera, the losing finalist, is also expected to be at Sydney.

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Paes, the bronze medallist of 1996 will be back on court at the Hamlet Cup, Long Island. It is now clear that Paes and Bhupathi will be playing together at Long Island and then again split for the US Open, for which they have committed to different partners. Bhupathi will be playing with Mark Knowles of Bahamas and Paes is likely to team up with Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands.

As of now the indications are that Leander might also try to play the qualifiers, if only to get some match practice. However, the Indian duo has decided to skip the ATP event at Tashkent slated for the week before the Olympics — the reason being that in case they get to the finals, they will have just a day to get to Sydney for the Olympic event.

Considering the importance both Paes and Bhupathi attach to the Olympic Games, the two feel they should not do anything that could jeopardise their chances at the Olympics. This will be the third Olympic Games for Leander, who earlier took part at the 1992 edition in Barcelona and in 1996 at Atlanta. At Barcelona, partnering Ramesh, Paes reached the doubles quarter-finals before losing to the Croatian pair, Goran Ivanisevic and Goran Prpic. It was the first-ever medal at the Olympics for Croatia.

In 1996, Leander played only the singles and despite being ranked 127th, reached the semi-finals before losing to the eventual champion Andre Agassi after holding two set points at one stage. Enroute, he beat fancied players like Richey Reneberg, Nicolas Perreira, Thomas Enqvist and Renzo Furlan. In the play-off for the bronze medal, Paes came back from a first-set loss to beat Brazilian Fernando Melligeni in three sets.