Who's playing doubles with whom at Wimbledon?

Doubles partnerships in tennis are much like political alliances. There are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies. And nothing exemplifies that better than the doubles partnerships of our Indian players at the upcoming Wimbledon Championships. Leander Paes is back to playing with former partner Radek Stepanek; Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, who only got back to playing together in March, are playing with different partners; and Sania Mirza is not playing with best friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands but instead with Liezel Huber, who she publicly questioned for not owning up to hitting a ball on double bounce at the 2012 Australian Open.

Mirza and Mattek-Sands have been playing consistently for nearly a year now and have been one of the top teams this season. The duo, who are also best friends off the court, have won 2 WTA Premier titles, reached another final, and are currently fifth in the race to the year-ending WTA Championships. But the two will lose ground to other teams as Sania will compete with Liezel Huber in the doubles this year at SW19.

There’s no need to look for controversy here. The reason is simply that the 28 year old American will not play doubles at Wimbledon this year after a tough six months in which she has seen her singles ranking jump from no. 169 to no. 55 in the world. The toll of playing singles and doubles week-in week-out caught up with her in Paris, where she had to retire during the third round doubles match and needed medical attention her fourth round singles match. With Mattek-Sands out, Sania has decided to team up with American Liezel Huber, who she also partnered in Sydney.

The two had a public spat during the 2012 Australian Open quarter finals when Sania and Elena Vesnina were leading 6-2 in the third set tiebreak. A shot by Mirza bounced twice before reaching the racquet of Huber, who was partnering Lisa Raymond. The Indian-Russian pair began to celebrate the match win, but chair umpire Carlos Ramos gave the point to Huber-Raymond. While replays confirmed that the ball did bounce twice before Huber played it, Mirza questioned Huber directly but Huber said that she couldn’t see if it had bounced twice or not. Mirza and Vesnina went on to win the match but the incident certainly left a bad taste in their mouth, leading them to question Huber’s sportsmanship.

There’s no questioning of sportsmanship between Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. After splitting at the end of the 2012 season to play with different partners, the duo got back together in March and are through to the semifinals of the Queen’s Club event as we speak. But the two are entered at Wimbledon with different partners – Bhupathi with Julian Knowle and Bopanna with Eduardo Roger-Vasselin. It would be certainly interesting to hear what has prompted this decision.

Meanwhile, Paes has gotten back to Czech veteran Radek Stepanek. The duo, who won the Australian Open in 2012, last played together in Melbourne where they lost in the first round. A neck injury which required surgery kept Stepanek out for three months and though he has been back on the tour since April, this would be the first time that he would be partnering with Paes since Melbourne.

As much as doubles is about chemistry and understanding, it is also about needing one another. The game surely makes for strange bedfellows. Like I said, in tennis, and in politics, there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies!