That’s gone past the line

Tennis soap opera: seen it, heard it, can't take it anymore

The desire for younger company has resulted in an ugly split of another elderly couple. It's an age-old tale, which initially generates curiosity, but after a point gets utterly boring. In a bid to have the relatively faster and stronger Rohan Bopanna by their side, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes have rolled up their sleeves. As allegations of backstabbing, lying, deception and even breaking pre-nuptials of the tennis kind surface every day, Indian sports' longest running daytime soap, with its convoluted storyline of adultery, gets lame end-of-the-episode twists. But despite the suspense, it has become excruciatingly tedious to stay tuned. Seen it, heard it, can't take it anymore.

While the majority of India's other London-bound Olympians are cocooned in training camps across the globe, the tennis stars are publicly badmouthing each other, with followers, friends and fathers providing the background noise. The vengeance that is generally reserved for rivals, at events of Olympic stature, is being wasted on each other. The clothesline is out on the front porch for the world to view the dirty linen from their two-decade-long, more-off-than-on relationship. Malicious off-the-record plants and spiteful e-mails are flying around as another season of intrigue unfolds.

But then these tennis stars have stuck to this bizarre pre-big event routine for way too long now. Virtually every countdown to the Davis Cup, Asiad or the Olympics in recent times have added a layer of mistrust around the small, but deeply divided Indian tennis fraternity. Camp Paes vs Camp Bhupathi is a regular battle that gets played on the sidelines, with officials turning cheerleaders and rookies getting caught in the crossfire.

If the All India Tennis Association (AITA) sticks to its stand and Paes-Bhupathi do remain India's only entry at London 2012, Bopanna will be the latest victim of this feud.

... contd.

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