Tennis row: Paes in no mood to relent, refuses to meet Rajpal

Leander Paes is still in no mood to relent, says a report in the Times Of India. He refused to meet Anil Khanna’s emissary Rohit Rajpal in London on Friday. “Rohit and other officials have spoken to him many times and Leander is aware of the AITA decision already, so what’s there to talk afresh,” Dr Vece Paes said on Friday evening, adding that the angry 39-year-old doesn’t want another round of requests to soft-pedal and reconsider his stated stand of not going to the London Games.

Rajpal, a former Davis Cupper and one of the six national selectors, said before leaving for London that Khanna had requested him to meet Paes and explain the sequence of events that made the association accept the formula of sending two doubles teams to London.
Meanwhile a report in Indian Express says that A clear picture on Leander Paes' participation at the London Olympics is unlikely to emerge before June 28, when ITF will reveal whether Sania Mirza has been given a wild card.

Despite Paes' reservations, All India Tennis Association (AITA) had partnered him with 206th ranked Vishnu Vardhan for the men's doubles but he was assured of a pairing with Sania for the mixed doubles event. The AITA was forced to give in to the demand of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna that they be sent as a team to London after initially selecting Paes and Bhupathi as the lone Indian entry.

Sania, on the back of her recent French Open victory, is likely to get a wild card entry either in the singles or the women's doubles draw with Rushmi Chakravarthy.