India have never missed out on a men's doubles team at the Olympics ever since a young Leander Paes and Ramesh Krishnan competed at the 1992 Games in Barcelona.
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The tennis duo of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan failed to qualify for the men’s doubles event in Tokyo Olympics. This could be a massive roadblock in India’s medal chances in the tennis event at the Tokyo Olympics.
According to PTI, the low-ranking duo at 113, Bopanna (38), and left-handed Sharan’s (75) entry could happen since a lot of players withdrew from the Olympics. These withdrawals are a result of the ongoing pandemic.
“The ITF has confirmed that Bopanna and Divij could not be entered as a team in the men”s doubles team. However, things might change till July 16 (if there are more withdrawals),” PTI quoted a source from AITA.
According to the rules, only those players can be a part of the mixed team who have made it through to one of the events in the Games (either singles our doubles).
It was imperative for Bopanna to be in men’s doubles so that he can be paired with Sania Mirza, who is will be competing with Ankita Raina in the women’s doubles event.
Sania and Rohan came close to winning a bronze in 2016 but they lost the bronze play-off to Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka in straight sets.
The limited number of tournaments due to the Covid-19 lockdown and travel restrictions acted as a hurdle for Bopanna and Sharan to improve their rankings.
Bopanna was ranked 38th at the start of the year while Sharan’s ranking only slipped more and more from number 63.
India have never missed out on a men’s doubles team at the Olympics ever since a young Leander Paes and Ramesh Krishnan competed at the 1992 Games in Barcelona.
