AITA condemns 'misleading, inappropriate' comments by Rohan Bopanna, Sania Mirza

The All India Tennis Association AITA SecretaryGeneral Anil Dhupar on Monday condemned the inappropriate and misleading statements from tennis players Rohan Bopanna and Sania MirzaBopanna said International Tennis Federation ITF never accepted an entry for him and Sumit Nagal and had made it clear that no changes were allowed after the deadline of nomination unless there was an injury or illnessSania then said the team sacrificed a very good shot at a medal in the mixed doubles category in the Tokyo Olympics if Bopannas claim were indeed trueAITA in a statement explained that Bopanna couldnt qualify for the Tokyo Olympics due to ITF rulesTwitter comments by Rohan Bopanna and then Sania Mirza are inappropriate misleading and it appears without knowledge of the rules They should have checked the rule book of ITF regarding qualifications something that Divij Sharan seems to have done while writing to TOPS AITA said in a statementRohan Bopanna could not have qualified as per ITF Rules Therefore Sania Mirzas tweet is also baseless and coming from a player of her stature is condemnable Fact of the matter is that Indias best entry was sent for Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan which was the correct decisionHowever they did not qualify as per ITF rules Our players rankings were not good enough for direct qualification and we made all efforts to get them in Rohan and Divij were fifth on alternate list on 16th JulyOnly on 16th July when Sumit Nagal got a chance in Singles we saw a possibility since singles players were also being considered of Sumit being able to partner with Rohan We asked ITF whether the entry of Sumit Nagal will suffice to pair with Rohan Bopanna for an entry into Mens Doubles it addedAITA said ITF informed them by saying that this cannot be done at this stage because of various reasons and rulesEven if it is done the pair would still not qualify Rohan with Sumit would be at third alternate pair We at AITA tried to help our players with all combinations but they failed to make the cut based on rankings said AITAIs Rohan Bopanna suggesting that we should have entered his name with Sumit Nagal one month ago when Sumits ranking was in the 140s and Divij was at 78The comment by Rohan Bopanna who is a senior player is due to lack of knowledge and without understanding the facts rules of ITF and is unwarranted and totally misleading Even the comments of Sania Mirza are most inappropriate Ranking of Rohan with Divij or Sumit Nagal were not good enough for qualification So how did we we lose an opportunity to win medals either in mens doubles or mixed doubles This tweet and statement of Mr Bopanna is condemned unequivocally it addedIn the mens singles Nagal qualified for the Tokyo Olympics on the basis of withdrawals The 23yearold currently sits at 154 in the ATP Ranking He achieved careerhigh No 122 on August 24 2020 after reaching Prague CZE Challenger QFSania Mirza and Ankita Raina were confirmed to represent India in womens doubles at theOlympics after entries were officially announced in JulySania is now set to become the first female athlete to represent India at four Olympics when she features at the Tokyo 2020 slated to get underway from July 23 while Ankita Raina will be making her debut at the showpiece eventAlso Read Sania on Bopannas tweet on Oly qualification If its true then its ridiculousThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever