Reuters

• FOR OLD TIME'S SAKE: Paes urged Bhupathi to rerturn to national duty to have one last shot at Asian and Olympic gold.

Mumbai, Oct 5: India Davis Cup captain Leander Paes has appealed to doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi to reverse his decision to quit the national squad for the Asian Games.

The 32-year-old Bhupathi walked out of the squad for the December games in Doha, Qatar on Monday, saying he would no longer play for India.

A multiple winner of men's and mixed doubles grand slam titles, Bhupathi was upset with a decision by his national federation to pair top woman player Sania Mirza with Paes.

However, Paes and the All India Tennis Federation (AITA) have been trying to persuade Bhupathi to change his mind in their bid to keep alive Indian gold medal hopes in men's doubles.

"Mahesh's decision not to play for India is unfortunate and the loss will be felt by the entire team," Paes said in a statement on Wednesday. "This decision comes as a surprise...," he added.

"In fact, Mahesh confirmed to me that we would be playing the Asian Games in two months, the Davis Cup and the Olympics in 2008. As the Davis Cup captain, Mahesh has a place on my team, and as previously agreed upon, I hope we do play for India together."

Bhupathi attributed "various factors" for his decision. "As of now, I haven't changed my decision," he said on Wednesday. "The federation is issuing statements it is confident I'll change my mind."

Paes and Bhupathi won three of their four grand slam men's doubles titles together, but split after a superb 1999, when they reached the finals of all four majors and won two, due to personal differences.

Bhupathi also said he wanted to focus on winning a maiden Australian Open title after Paes turned down his offer to re-unite on the tour to strengthen their bid for a maiden Olympic medal at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Paes, who won the US Open doubles last month with Czech Martin Damm, wants to continue playing with him.

The AITA secretary Anil Khanna said Bhupathi had only wanted to skip Davis Cup zonal ties and was confident of persuading him to play in Doha.

"I was surprised," he said. "His contribution to Indian tennis is very significant and I'm very confident he will change his mind."