He said he would have to convince Paes to accept the formula worked out by the AITA, and he was confident of persuading the iconic player to play in the Olympics.

“AITA agrees the decision is unfair to the India No. 1 and World No. 7. AITA holds Leander in high esteem and appeals to him to accept this decision in the best interest of the nation. We are confident Leander will not disappoint us. He’s done yeoman’s service to the nation over the last 25 years,” said Anil Khanna.

“The AITA now requests Leander to forgive utterances of the last few days of some persons which were based only on half-truths. We are confident that all of us will join hands in requesting Leander to reverse his thoughts and help Rohan Bopanna and Vishnu Vardhan have a lifetime opportunity to play in their first Olympics,” Khanna added.

In a message from London, Bhupathi and Bopanna said they were “delighted to have been nominated as a team” for the Olympics. “We are excited that we will be playing together at the Olympics and our sole focus is now on our team’s preparations for the Games,” they said. “The events of the last few days have been extremely challenging for all concerned, but we respect them as necessary steps in this process. In making each of our decisions, we were guided by our strong convictions regarding what we believed was fair and we are pleased that this is reflected in the outcome. We are greatly appreciative of the support we have received from across the world,” their statement read.