AITA picks lower-ranked players for Asiad, courts row

NEW DELHI: As the national tennis squad for the Incheon Asian Games was announced in the capital on Saturday, it caused a furore in Chennai. Why? The senior selection committee of the All India Tennis Association named Sanam Singh (world No 400) and Saketh Myneni (world No 416) in the six-member squad, ignoring three higher ranked players – Ramkumar Ramanathan (304), Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (307) and N Sriram Balaji (377). It’s well known that Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) --the three come from the state --- and the AITA have been at loggerheads for a while. “It’s unfair that India’s third, fourth and fifth best players have been ignored but the sixth and seventh best have been included,” fumed TNTA vice-president Karti P Chidambaram. “It’s discrimination. Somdev (Devvarman) is No 1 (No 132) and then comes Yuki Bhambri (No 151), but how can they select two players who are ranked lower? The last time when a TNTA boy wasn’t picked, the selection committee said it had gone by the rankings. On what basis have this selection been done?” Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna are the doubles specialists. In January, the 40-yearold had made himself unavailable for Davis Cup ties and other events this year citing personal reasons. In fact, AITA had agreed to this and had said Paes’s decision would ‘give an opportunity to the upcoming players to showcase their game’. When contacted, the selection committee chairman, Anil Dhupar, defended Paes’s selection.