Paes dropped for Davis Cup tie vs Uzbekistan

Bengaluru, April 6: Veteran tennis ace Leander Paes was on Thursday dropped from the Indian squad for the Asia/Oceania Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan, which starts here on Friday.

Instead of Paes, Davis Cup non-playing skipper Mahesh Bhupathi gave Rohan Bopanna a chance to pair with Sriram Balaji for the doubles match against Uzbekistan.

Bopanna and Balaji will face  Farrukh Dustov and Sanjar Fayziev in the men's doubles category.

Ramkumar Ramanathan will now spearhead India's singles challenge in place of Yuki Bhambri, who is suffering from a knee injury.

Ramanathan will face Temur Ismailov in the first singles rubber on Friday while Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who replaced Bhambri, will then take on Fayziev in the second singles rubber.

Earlier on March 28, Bhupathi selected four singles players in the squad for the Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan, dropping Paes and his doubles partner Bopanna to the reserves.