The Hindu : Warm welcome for Indians

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Warm welcome for Indians

NEW DELHI OCT. 15. Even though the gold medallists Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were absent the Indian tennis team got a hero's welcome as it landed a couple of hours behind schedule at the Indira Gandhi International airport here on Monday night.

Bronze medal winning pair of Mustafa Ghouse and Vishaal Uppal was there, along with Sania Mirza who had partnered Leander for the mixed doubles bronze.

There was a big group from the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA), players, coaches etc., along with the secretary general of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Mr. Anil Khanna, at the airport to cheer the team on its arrival.

Three of the players, Rohan Bopanna, Mustafa Ghouse and Sania took off a few hours later in the morning for Tashkent to represent the country in the $100,000 Asian Championship. Nirupama Vaidyanathan had also been nominated for this event, but she pulled out.

"It was a great experience to play with Leander and win a medal. He was so encouraging. I played well in the team event also.

``Playing the top 150 players of the world was a learning experience.

I hope to build my career better after this experience,'' said the 15-year-old Sania, before catching her flight for Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, Manisha Malhotra who had partnered Mahesh Bhupathi to the mixed doubles silver has reached Australia for tournaments.

Both Leander and Mahesh, fresh from the third title of the year together, have reached Madrid, Spain, for the Masters series tournament.

Mahesh partnering Max Mirnyi of Belarus has been seeded second and given a bye while Leander and Michael Hill of Australia have been drawn to play against special entrants Xavier Malisse of Belgium and Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands.

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