Sania, Paes sparkled briefly in dull season

The performances of Sania Mirza and Leander Paes were the bright spots in a tepid year for Indian tennis, which kept its date with controversies during the Olympic year.

Paes completed his mixed doubles career slam when he and Martina Hingis clinched the French Open — the one trophy which was missing from his illustrious collection. However, his ambition of participating in his record seventh Olympics endured a temporary speed bump when Rohan Bopanna made it to the top-10 bracket of men’s doubles in the nick of time.

Paes’ doubles ranking of 46 at the date of cut-off for the Rio Olympics had also ruled him out of mixed doubles contention. However, Bopanna named Saketh Myneni as his preferred choice, by virtue of being the top 10 player in the men’s doubles, before consenting to partner Paes who was the choice of the All India Tennis Association’s selection committee..

The two didn’t play in any tournament prior to the Games, barring the Davis Cup tie against South Korea on grass in July. At Rio, the late arrival of Paes attracted criticism. When the two bowed out in the opening round, not many were surprised. Sania, partnering Prarthana Thombare in women’s doubles, too crashed out in the opening round.

Meanwhile, the partnership of Sania and Bopanna in Rio raised hopes of a medal when they beat the formidable pairing of Andy Murray and Heather Watson to enter the mixed doubles semifinals. They, however lost to the American pairing of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram, despite winning the first set. The Indians could never recover from the defeat and lost the bronze medal play-off against Czechs Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek to put their medal chances to rest.

Sania, who had started the year with a bang by winning the Australian Open women’s doubles title with Hingis, parted ways with the Swiss legend during the Olympics. The two insisted the split was mutual, citing underperformance. Post Olympics, Sania partnered Barbora Strýcová at the Cincinnati Masters and won their debut tournament as a team, by defeating Hingis and Coco Vandeweghe. Sania and Hingis came together to defend their WTA Finals title at Singapore but lost in the semifinals. Sania, however, ended the year as the World No 1 in women’s doubles for the second consecutive year.

Among men, Myneni rose to become India’s No 1 singles player, in the absence of injured Yuki Bhambri and Somdev Devvarman. He made his singles debut in Davis Cup with Ramkumar Ramanathan against Korea, where he won hearts with his gutsy performance despite being hampered by cramps.

When the Spaniards, led by multiple Grand Slam Champion Rafael Nadal, came visiting for the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie in September, Myneni shouldered the responsibility of playing the singles and doubles. After Rohan Bopanna pulled out citing a knee injury, Myneni, partnering Paes gave a rousing performance against the Rio gold medallist pair of Nadal and Marco Lopez. India were blanked 5-0, but Myneni received rich praise from Paes. The 43-year-old then stirred up the hornets’ nest by stating that in the last two Olympics India didn’t send their best teams. It invited strong reactions from Sania and Bopanna on twitter.

Days before the year’s closing, the Indian tennis underwent another unrest. Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj was removed on grounds of failing to curb indiscipline in the team. He even got players’ support through a letter. But AITA replaced him with former doubles exponent Mahesh Bhupathi to silence the critics. Also, Bopanna was dropped from the upcoming tie against New Zealand. Myneni was preferred over him to partner Paes, as the selectors felt this gave them the option of fielding three singles players. 

However, what intrigued the most is how the combine of estranged doubles partners Bhupathi and Paes, donning different roles in Davis Cup, would function. In the coming year, it is likely to keep Indian tennis fans riveted.