Former India player and current non-playing captain of the Indian team Mahesh Bhupathi, on Tuesday, preferred not to reveal his team’s doubles combination ahead of India’s Asia/Oceania Zone Group 1 tie against Uzbekistan on Friday in Bengaluru, reported PTI.
“The focus needs to be on how we are going to win three points. Davis Cup is all about winning three points, not one point,” said Bhupathi. “There is a lot of talk about doubles which has been going on for weeks and it will probably go on for the next 48 hours.”
India’s doubles combination at the upcoming tie remains a matter of speculation after new Davis Cup captain Bhupathi left the experienced pair of Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna in the reserves and instead picked Yuki Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sriram Balaji and Prajnesh Gunneswaran who are all primarily singles players.
However, Bhambri was ruled out of the tie due to a knee injury so either Paes or Bopanna will be included within the team.
Bhupathi, who along with Paes won 22 doubles title in a row, also did not agree that India’s strength in tennis lay in the doubles format.
“I don’t know if the results are doubles-related. We’ve always fielded what we thought was our best pair. You win some and you lose some. We [Leander and Mahesh] won 22 in a row so it doesn’t mean the legacy is going to continue,” he observed.
He continued on that line of thought by pointing out that what mattered for a country was fielding the best possible team.
“Obviously when you are playing at the highest level of doubles it’s in the interest of the country to field the best possible team,” he said. “Once the level declines past a point, every tennis player is capable of playing good doubles as long as he’s pointed in the right direction. So, that’s the reason we are still uncertain on who’s playing doubles on April 8.”