Bopanna dropped, Mahesh non-playing captain
It was a day of changes in Indian tennis, as the All India Tennis Association named Mahesh Bhupathi as the new non-playing captain while Rohan Bopanna was dropped from the squad against New Zealand.
Veteran Bhupathi, who last competed in the Davis Cup in 2011, will take charge of the side after their Asia/Oceania zone Group I tie against New Zealand in Pune from February 3 to 5.
This will be Anand Amritraj’s last tie as nonplaying captain as Aita wants to give him a “farewell”.
Meanwhile, two-time Olympian Bopanna was dropped from the squad.
Leander Paes and Saketh Myneni were the preferred choice of the selectors, for their good show against Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez in the previous Davis Cup tie against Spain.
While Bopanna’s world ranking is 28, Paes is currently 59 and Myneni is 210 in the ATP doubles ranking list.
“Picking Rohan blocks a place for a third singles player that we wanted to have in the squad. Also Leander and Saketh were brilliant against Spain.
“But whenever Leander and Rohan have played together, they have not done well. Take Czech Republic tie as an example,” national selector S.P. Misra said here.
“The other factor being Rohan being an ad court player. Even Saketh is an ad court player while Leander prefers deuce court (right side of the court). If we pick Rohan and Saketh, then we have two ad court players. Even Rohan and Saketh have not done well as a pair,” he added.
He, however, informed that Rohan had informed the committee that about his availability for this tie.
Speaking about Bhupathi’s elevation as the non-playing captain replacing Amritraj, Aita secretary general Hiranmoy Chatterjee said, “Everybody should get a chance to be the captain. No post stays with one person forever. I personally spoke to Mahesh and asked if he is available, he said ‘Yes’. That was it. Also we wanted Anand to be given a farewell tie.”