Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna, in the news for reasons other than tennis, will face Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski in the first round of the men’s doubles at the Olympic Games.
Paes and Bopanna have not been seeded for the event and are placed in the top half of the draw which was made on Thursday.
The Indians should be able to come through the opening test but they are likely to face a tough examination in the second round. Their opponents will be the winners of the contest between Roberto Bautista and David Ferrer of Spain, seeded eighth, and Lukas Rosol and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert are the top seeds while the British combine of Andy Murray and brother Jamie are seeded second.
In women’s doubles, Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare will face China’s Peng Shuai and Zhang Shuai in the first round. If they pass the first hurdle, they could run into the sixth seeds, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic in the next round.
An interesting match-up in the men’s singles will be between top seed Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina. The two had met in the bronze medal play-off four years ago, with del Potro emerging winner.
Tough for Thapa
Shiva Thapa was handed a tough first round opponent as the draw for boxing event was made on Thursday.
Thapa, who suffered a sad first round defeat in London four years ago, will be up against the sixth seed Robeisy Ramirez of Cuba in the opening round of the 56kg category. Ramirez, a southpaw, is the defending champion and is also the winner of the gold in the 2011 Pan American Games.
In the 75kg category, Vikas Krishan has been seeded seventh and will clash with Charles Albert Shone Conwell of the United States in the first round while in the 64kg, Manoj Kumar will face 2010 Youth Olympics champion Evaldas Petrauskas of Lithuania in the opening round.
Leander Paes creates a flutter
Indian tennis and controversy are never far away. With less than a day left for the Rio Olympics, reports have emerged that Leander Paes was yet to arrive in the Brazilian city and is believed to have told the Indian Olympic Association that he doesn’t wish to share a flat with his doubles partner Rohan Bopanna.
Paes’ father Vece said that his son would reach Rio on Thursday evening.
As a result of Paes’ absence, Bopanna has been forced to find a new training partner. Paes and Bopanna aren’t the best of friends and their relationship reached another flashpoint when the former announced that he would wish to partner Saketh Myneni for the Rio Games.