Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes will form the lone team from Asia for the men’s doubles in the Olympics to be staged in Rio de Janeiro from August 5.
There were eight final qualification places that were given to Belarus, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, Britain, New Zealand, Slovakia and Ukraine.
In fact, some of the countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Britain, Spain and the U.S. will be fielding a second team in men’s doubles. As expected, the Beijing Games doubles gold medallists Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka will pair for Switzerland.
Rafael Nadal will pair with Marc Lopez for Spain, while Novak Djokovic will partner former World No. 1 doubles player Nenad Zimonjic for Serbia.
There will be many other leading players like Juan Martin del Potro, Milos Raonic, Marin Cilic, Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet, Andy Murray, David Ferrer and the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, making a strong field in the doubles draw of 32.
Thus, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan, ranked 46 in doubles could not get an entry. In fact, Asia has limited representation in men’s singles, through Kei Nishikori of Japan, Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, Denis Istomin of Kazakhstan and Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei.
Much in contrast, Asia will have a strong representation in the women’s events. Both China and Chinese Taipei will have two women’s doubles teams. The other teams apart from the Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare, the Asian Games bronze medallists, will be the ones from Japan and Kazakhstan.
Shuai Peng, Shuai Zhang, Su Wei Hsieh, Misaki Doi,, Nao Hibino, Yullia Putintseva, Gallina Voskoboevea will represent China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and Kazakhstan in women’s singles.
The women’s field will have defending champion Serena Williams, her sister Venus Williams, Garbine Muguruza, Victoria Azarenka, Eugenie Bouchard, Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki, Kristina Mladenovic, Alize Cornet, Angelique Kerber, Roberta Vinci, Francesca Schiavone, Agnieszka Radwanska, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, Dominika Cibulkova and Elina Svitolina among the leading players.
Martina Hingis will be playing the doubles with Belinda Bencic for Switzerland and is tipped to play mixed doubles with Federer.
The entries for the mixed doubles draw of 16 will be finalised at the venue during the Olympics, based on the singles and doubles rankings, as on the cut off date of June 6, from among the players present.
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