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Indian teams for Asian Games

NEW DELHI AUG. 23. A 12-member tennis team has been announced to compete in the men's and women's team events apart from the individual singles, doubles and mixed doubles events in the Asian Games to be held in Busan, South Korea, next month.

Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Sunil Kumar will represent the country in the men's team event. The onus will be on Nirupama Vaidyanathan, Manisha Malhotra, Rushmi Chakravarti and Isha Lakhani for the women's event.

Leander will partner Sania Mirza and Mahesh will combine with Manisha for the mixed doubles events.

The crack combination of Leander and Mahesh will play the doubles, both in the team event and in individual doubles. Vishaal Uppal and Mustafa Ghouse have been selected as the second doubles team for the individual events.

Nirupama and Rushmi are expected to make one doubles combination, while juniors Sania Mirza and Ankita Bhambri will make the second pair.

``We did discuss Sai Jayalakshmy, but we had to opt for youngsters Sania, Ankita and Isha, as we are focussing on the 2006 Asian Games," said the secretary general of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Mr. Anil Khanna.

Sai has been ranked third best in singles at 529 and second best in doubles at 357 among the Indians on the WTA computer. The selectors opted to keep Nirupama Vaidyanathan in the team, despite a ranking of 1016 and the fact that her game may be a little rusty at the moment, considering her stature and contribution.

The teams:

Men: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna, Sunil Kumar, Mustafa Ghouse and Vishaal Uppal.

Women: Nirupama Vaidyanathan, Manisha Malhotra, Rushmi Chakravarti, Isha Lakhani, Sania Mirza and Ankita Bhambri.

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