India's Davis Cup captain Leander Paes denied having said that partnering Mahesh Bhupathi was the "worst decision" of his career, saying it would be "utterly silly" to make a comment like that.
"The context of the answer was that I regret having slowed down my singles career," Paes told reporters in New Delhi on Friday, after Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj had scripted heroic five-sets victories to give India a 2-0 lead on the first day of the Davis Cup tie against Japan.
"Let me make this clear: I have cherished every single time that I've played with Mahesh. It's silly to think that I regret the decision to have played doubles with Mahesh. Being No 1 in the world and having won so many Grand Slams with him is fantastic."
Paes was ranked as high as 73 in the world before he cut short his singles appearances in the late '90s.
"I had just won a title at Forest Hills; I had beaten Pete Sampras at New Haven. At that point of time I could've broken into the top-50. Looking back now, I wonder whether I would have been able to do that. But at that time playing singles and doubles together was not very easy.
"After 1999, my singles completely took a back seat. I slowed down my singles career, not for Mahesh, but because I thought I had a better chance and wanted to be No 1 in the world."
The eight-time Grand Slam champion, who is slated to team up with Bhupathi in Saturday's doubles rubber against Japan's Takao Suzuki and Satoshi Iwabuchi, said he cleared the air on the issue with Bhupathi.
"It seems at every Davis Cup tie there is some controversy."
India's top two singles players, Amritraj and Bopanna, along with Bhupathi had written to the All India Tennis Association after the tie against Uzbekistan that they would not be available to play for India if Paes was captain. The rebelling players climbed down from their strong stance and decided to play the Round II tie against Japan though their demand against Paes stands.
"The boys would not have been able to pull off matches like these if there was so much bad blood in the team," Paes added.
Paes also congratulated all the four players, including Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda from Japan, on the show they put up on Friday, especially the Indians for putting the team in such a strong position at the end of the first day.
"I would like to commend all the players; the conditions out there are really tough and to show so much grit is great."
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