Tennis
Rohan Bopanna blames India's tennis association for misleading him about qualification for Tokyo Olympics
Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna blames the All India Tennis Association for misleading athletes over their chances of participating in the Tokyo Olympics.
Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna blames the All India Tennis Association (AITA) for misleading athletes over their chances of participating in the Tokyo Olympics.
A disgruntled Bopanna took to his Twitter handle to express his frustration. He Tweeted:
ITF has never accepted an entry for Sumit Nagal & myself. ITF was clear that no changes were allowed after the nomination deadline (22nd June) unless Injury/Illness. AITA has misled the players, government, media and everyone else by stating we still have a chance.
On July 16, The Indian tennis player Sumit Nagal made the cut for the men's singles event of the Tokyo Olympics as large-scale withdrawals pushed him inside the qualification mark. The AITA promptly paired him with Rohan Bopanna for the men's doubles competition by withdrawing Divij Sharan's nomination.
Rohan Bopanna is currently India's highest-ranked doubles player. The 41-year-old is ranked No. 40 in the world and has maintained a spot in the top-50 every week since July 2010.
A week earlier, PTI reported that India's tennis players were "confused" about the criteria that have been adopted for finalising the entries as those ranked below them have been confirmed participation but they still didn't know exactly what the cut-off mark was for the Games.
Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan with a combined rank of 113 could not make the cut when the June 14 rankings were considered for entries but due to withdrawals, the vacated places have been offered to the next eligible players.
Many players, who did not make the cut earlier, have announced their participation even as the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has not officially made public the cut-off mark.
The lack of transparency in the process is what kept Indian players questioning. "The most confusing part as a player is even though the entry deadline has passed for Olympics, we have no idea on what the exact cut off of rankings are," Bopanna told PTI.
"I have been asking ATP when I was in London (for Wimbledon) but unfortunately they themselves have no concrete answer to this," the 41-year-old had said.
