NEW DELHI, June 21: India's top tennis doubles player Leander Paes will team up with an inexperienced partner in 207th-ranked Vishnu Vardhan as a solution to a selection row that also includes picking Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna as a second doubles pair for the London Olympics.

“In the given circumstances, the best option before the All India Tennis Association (AITA) is of sending two pairs,” federation president Anil Khanna told reporters.

India had originally picked Paes and Bhupathi, a former top-ranked pair in the world, as the country's only men's doubles combination for the Olympics as AITA felt it had the best chance of winning a medal.

But Bhupathi, not on speaking terms with Paes after their second bitter split last year, had threatened to boycott the Games if he and Bopanna were separated. Bopanna, too, rejected an AITA offer to partner Paes, whose top-10 ranking gives him direct entry, and said India should field two pairs.

Paes and Bhupathi formed a long-standing and highly successful team for years, winning Grand Slam doubles titles at the French Open in 1999 and 2001, and Wimbledon in 1999.

Bhupathi and Bopanna, who started playing together at the start of the year, welcomed the decision in a statement.

“The events of the last few days have been extremely challenging,” the two said in a joint statement. “Our sole focus is now on our team's preparations for the Games.”—Agencies