Leander Paes available, final call on Davis Cup team after ITF’s Nov 4 meet

Kolkata: There is optimism around the Indian Davis Cup team after the legendary Leander Paes made himself available for the highly-anticipated Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-I tie against Pakistan.

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) was on Friday forced to fall back on Leander after both non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi and veteran doubles player Rohan Bopanna refused to travel to Islamabad, citing security concerns.

Although the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is expected to assess the venue on November 4 and the AITA has also requested the world body to relocate the fixture to a neutral venue, players in the Indian team have expressed their reservations about traveling to Pakistan.

But after Paes, 46, made himself available along with others like Saketh Myneni, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Arjun Kadhe, Vijay Sundar Prashanth, N Sriram Balaji, Siddharth Rawat, and Manish Suresh Kumar, there is fresh hope among those who matter in the team that they have good players to choose from.

“Leander is a legend and we all know that. His experience will be invaluable. We have other good players like Jeevan who is in the top 100 rankings to choose from. They have made themselves available too which is not so bad,” an AITA source told IANS.

Besides Bhupathi and Bopanna, other players not willing to travel to Islamabad include top singles players Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal and Sasi Kumar Mukund. India’s best-ranked singles player, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, is also not available as he’s tying the knot on November 29, the opening day of the tie.

The AITA is waiting for a final call on the venue by the ITF and then final entry of players will be decided. If the tie, slated for November 29-30, is shifted to a neutral venue, all the players would be available.

“I don’t know about Leander then (if the tie is moved from Pakistan). See, the squad is yet to be announced. He has just made himself available,” the source pointed.

Leander Paes last featured in a Davis tie in April 2018.

The tie was originally scheduled for September 14-15 in Islamabad. But due to security reasons, the Davis Cup committee had to postpone it to November.

India was all set to go to Pakistan before relations between the two countries deteriorated in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir which granted the state special status. The ITF had previously turned down India’s security concerns before finally settling for a discussion on the matter. IANS

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