Play in interest of nation, S M Krishna to tennis players

 External Affairs Minister S M Krishna today appealed to India's top tennis players to forget their individual differences and play in the "interest of the nation".

Krishna, who is also the Honourary President of the All India Tennis Association, has asked AITA President Anil Khanna to meet all the the players personally and talk to them to resolve the issue immediately.

Urging all the three players -- Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna -- to forget their personal disparities, Krishna said India's interest should be respected and the players should resolve their individual differences and should never compromise the image of country for personal issues.

Krishna stepped in a day after Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken backed out from the ongoing tennis impasse.

Maken yesterday tweeted that he had no intention of getting involved in the selection process for the men's doubles tennis team for the London Olympics.

"The Sports Ministry does not wish to be a part of the selection process of tennis. We had raised certain issues because of requests from certain iconic players. The Sports Ministry leaves it to the AITA to exercise any of the options in the best of national interests," he had tweeted.