Mahesh Bhupathi slams 'under-prepared' Paes-Bopanna for Rio shocker

Former tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi came out all guns blazing against the Indian pair of Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna for their shocking first round exit in the men's doubles event at the Rio Olympics.

Bhupathi revealed that India's men's doubles team paid the price for lack of practice ahead of the Games. "There were no preparations at all. They didn't play matches together. Even when Leander and I were not playing together on tour in 2004 and 2008, we always came together and played a few tournaments and that's what Olympics demands.

This year they went in cold. One match against a dilapidated Korean Davis Cup team is not the way to prepare for the Olympics. Our best shot was in the mixed doubles but were unfortunate," Bhupathi was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

Paes-Bopanna, a potential medal hope for India, were outclassed by their Polish rivals Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot 4-6 6-7 (6-8). The Indian pair served woefully and were broken four times in the match including a disappointing three times in the first set.

Incidentally, Bopanna initially wanted to play with Saketh Myneni and not Paes in the men's doubles encounter, just like Bhupathi did in the 2012 London Olympics, when he took the court alongside Bopanna.

However, AITA forced Bopanna to select Paes as his partner but the two had only one competitive outing before the Rio tie and that too in a Davis Cup match against a lowly Korean side.

Paes arrived in Rio on August 4 while the rest of the tennis contingent had checked in on August 1. So he couldn't practice with Bopanna and as a result saw his campaign get over in only 84 minutes as not for once did the Indian pair look like having forged a winning combination.