Rohan Bopanna will team up with N Sriram Balaji or Yuki Bhambri at the Paris Olympics

India’s top doubles player Rohan Bopanna will choose N Sriram Balaji or Yuki Bhambri as his partner for the Paris Olympics and the All India Tennis Association (AITA) is likely to approve his choice even as the combinations will be discussed by the selection committee.

The 44-year-old Bopanna, ranked fourth in the world, is a top-10 player and can, according to the rules, choose a player of his choice.

The men’s doubles draw at the Paris Games will be a 32-team affair, with one country able to have a maximum of two teams.

The qualifying criteria gives top 10 players the privilege of choosing their partners, who must be in the top 300 of the ATP and WTA rankings.

For qualifications, the rankings of June 10 after the French Open will be taken into account.

According to AITA sources, Bopanna had recommended the names of Balaji and Bhambri to the national federation for inclusion in TOPS as its potential partners for the Paris Olympics.

“Usually it is the player’s choice (to choose his partner). The selection committee will ask him about his choice and discuss it. Whoever Rohan wants to play with will be viewed positively,” AITA Secretary General Anil Dhupar told PTI when asked whether the national federation will allow Bopanna to play with the partner of his choice or give him his own choice will impose.

Stay up to date with the latest news from IPL 2024including top candidates for the IPL 2024 orange cap And IPL 2024 Purple cap. Discover the full IPL 2024 schedule, IPL 2024 Points Table and players with the Most Sixes, Most four And Mostly fifties in IPL 2024

Both Balaji and Bhambri have achieved some decent results on clay in the run-up to Roland Garros, where the action will take place during the Summer Olympics from July 27.

Balaji won the Cagliari Challenger event with German partner Andre Begemann, apart from reaching the semi-finals at Francavilla al Mare in Italy.

Bhambri won the ATP 250 event in Munich in April with French player Albano Olivetti and reached the semi-finals of the Bordeaux Challenger – the only event he competed in this month.

The nominations for the Olympics or other multi-sport events have often created controversy in Indian tennis. In 2012, a huge controversy had broken out when both Mahesh Bhupathi and Bopanna had refused to pair with Leander Paes, who was forced to play with Vishnu Vardhan.

Sania Mirza was then asked to play with Paes in the mixed doubles and the country’s top female player had chastised AITA for using her as bait to calm Paes down.

During the 2018 Asian Games, Paes had withdrawn from the continental event just two days before the start of the tennis competition, saying he had not been given a specialist player to pair with. AITA had nominated Bopanna and Divij Sharan as a team, leaving Paes with no choice but to pair with one of the singles players in the squad.

It will be Bopanna’s last chance to win an Olympic medal after coming close to a bronze medal with Sania Mirza in the mixed event of the 2016 Rio Games.

In singles, Sumit Nagal needs a good performance at the French Open to improve his ranking. He has been in 94th place since Monday.

In a draw of 64, organizers will accept 56 direct entries and of the six ITF places, three men’s quotas have been awarded to winners of continental events: Asian Games, African Games and Pan American Games.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)