Some of the world’s leading doubles teams have announced what amounts to a game of musical chairs with the most prominent changes involving the Indian trio of Mahesh Bhupathi, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna.
Despite reaching the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, Bhupathi and Paes have announced their year-long reconciliation will come to an end once they leave London’s 02 Arena.
And Bhupathi will then team up with Bopanna, so ending the high profile Indo-Pak Express partnership with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. According to Indian sources, the upcoming Olympic Games has figured prominently in the thinking of pairing up Bhupathi and Bopanna.
Meanwhile 39 year-old Paes is expected to partner Poland’s Lucasz Kubot next season while Qureshi has announced he will be linking up with Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands Antilles, who split with American Eric Butorac.
Now Butorac, ranked 20th in the ATP doubles listings and therefore a distinct Olympic candidate, has opted to begin 2012 alongside Brazil’s Bruno Soras.
“DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”
Topics: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna