Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna were India’s official team for the men’s doubles tennis event at the Rio Olympics 2016. Their performance was not very good and they lost their first round match to the Polish men’s doubles team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski. bhupathi paes bopanna
Commenting on their loss, Mahesh Bhupathi was quoted, saying that they did not practice enough before the Olympics and, hence, were underprepared. bhupathi paes bopanna
“The doubles team was definitely under-prepared, in fact, there was no preparation — that’s the right word.”
Talking about his time with Paes in previous tours, Bhupathi said that before the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics, they would always play a couple of practice tournaments, because the Olympic games were that demanding.
Bhupathi did not hold his words back when he said “They went in cold,” referring to Paes and Bopanna’s lack of preparation and practice for the Rio Olympics 2016.
“We won three hundred matches on tour, we made an effort to do it. This time, they went in cold. Obviously, one match against a dilapidated Korean Davis Cup team is not the way to prepare for the Olympics.”
Bhupathi said that after the men’s doubles team was ousted, India’s best bet was the mixed doubles with Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza, but even they didn’t make it.
What do you think about Bhupathi’s statement?
News source: Huffington Post
Cover image sources: 1 & 2