Indian tennis players seek to put behind selection acrimony

India's feuding tennis stars will seek to put the selection acrimony behind when they launch their Olympic campaign here tomorrow, hoping to prove that their personal differences will not come in the way of bagging a medal for the country.

The wranglings among players in the build up to the mega-event has raised serious doubts on whether they are in the right frame of mind to be able to give their best when the event gets underway on the hallowed grass courts of Wimbledon.

Even though the team has now assembled for the event, the odd disparaging statements has continued to come out from the players to keep the tension alive.

But the seasoned players -- Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza -- are thorough professionals and will try to put their best foot forward for the sake of the country. But whether they would manage to do so or not will be known in the coming days.

Bhupathi and his partner Rohan Bopanna, who are seventh seeded, will open their campaign against Max Mirnyi and Alexander Bury of Belarus in the men's doubles tennis event.

Seasoned pro Leander Paes and his unfancied partner Vishnu Vardhan will take on Julien jean Rojer and Robin Haase of The Netherlands in their men's doubles opening round as per the draw announced yesterday.

In women's doubles, Sania Mirza and her partner Rushmi Chakravarthi clash with the Taipei duo of Su Wei Hsieh and Chia-Jung Chuang in the opening round.

Somdev Devvarman, who got a wild card, will launch his campaign against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the men's singles opening round. If he manages to overcome his first round opponent, he will take on the winner of the match between third seeded Andy Murray of England and Stanisias Wawrinka of Switzerland.