India are set to face New Zealand in the Davis Cup tie in February, but Rohan Bopanna has been dropped from the squad. The big-serving Bopanna is miffed with the All India Tennis Association decision, who decided to pick Leander Paes ahead of him despite him being the higher ranked player in the circuit.
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Zeeshan Ali, Davis Cup coach, said that they decided to go with Leander and Saketh as they were impressive in their Davis Cup tie against Spain.
"We decided that between Rohan and Leander the latter was better suited for the job against New Zealand. Rohan and Saketh lost to (Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak) when we played them away last year and Leander and Saketh almost upset the Spaniards (Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez) in the last tie," the Times of India quoted Ali as saying.
There is no rocket science involved as the tennis fraternity knows that Bopanna and Paes do not have a great chemistry. Despite that Bopanna was asked to pair with Paes in the doubles contest for Rio Olympics, and now he has faced the snub. Bopanna wants the selectors to have some consistency while selecting the Davis Cup team.
"I'm OK to stay back and cheer the side, India has to win and that's what all of us want. But we have to have some consistency in the way we go about selecting a team. There is so much confusion and uncertainty , it's really sad. Whatever you decide, it's got to stand to reason, I cannot wrap my head around how they arrive at these decisions," Bopanna said.
With Paes being the lone doubles specialist in the squad, Myneni, Ramanathan Ramkumar, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Yuki Bhambri are the other players for the New Zealand tie.
