Paes-Bhupathi confirm CWG participation

CHENNAI - India’s famed doubles combination of Leander Paes, 37, and Mahesh Bhupathi, 36, Saturday confirmed their participation in the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games.

After winning the Davis Cup doubles tie against Brazil in the company of Bhupathi, Paes said: “We will be playing together in the Commonwealth Games and to prepare ourselves, we will be playing in a Tour event in Bangkok prior to the Games.”

Top Indian players — Paes, Bhupathi, Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna — had threatened to pull out of the Commonwealth Games due to non-payment of their outstanding bills of two years. The sports ministry last week cleared all the bills.

However, both Paes and Bhupathi were not specific in their response to a query whether they would yet again pair up on the ATP tour.

The duo won three Grand Slam men’s doubles titles and were once ranked No.1 in the World before their controversial split in 2000 soon after winning two Slams, then patching up before the final parting in 2002. However, they have been teaming up in representative competitions.

“The best thing is that we have grown up, grown to respect what we have done together and as individuals. We take responsibility for whatever happened. We proved ourselves as No.1,” said Paes.

On his part, Bhupathi said: “It is easy to sit back and wonder what happened in 2002. But we are both happy and prefer to live in the present. As Lee (Leander) said, we won a few Slams together and also with different partners.”