Ace Indian tennis player Sania Mirza said that she is good friends with Mahesh Bhupathi despite their decision to split as a mixed doubles team, says a report in The Times of India.
“We are still good friends. We have a great relationship and we are not going to spoil that over mixed doubles”, said Sania.
"Everything is fine. We even went to the movies this week to see a couple of films", she added.
Sania also said that there was no reason that the pair can’t team up together in the future.
She said, “Our commitment was only up until the Olympics and we both agreed it was best to have a break.”
Meanwhile a report in Hindustan Times says that the selection row had resulted in straining the friendship of Sania and Bhupathi as an angry Sania had alleged that she was used as a "bait" by AITA to pacify a disgruntled Leander Paes with whom both Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna had refused to play at the Games.
“Paes was forced to play with lower-ranked Vishnu Vardhan and in compensation he was assured pairing with Sania in the mixed doubles event. Sania's preferred partner was Bhupathi, with whom she won two Grand Slams, but she was not consulted by AITA who her preferred partner was. Bhupathi had stuck with Bopanna as partner and sacrificed his partnership with Sania. Sania had won Australian Open (2009) and French Open (2012) with Bhuapthi,” says the report.
