Leander Paes FINALLY arrives in Rio ahead of the opening encounter with Poland

New Delhi: While other Indian players have been sweating to prepare for the Rio Olympics (starting 5th August), one of the most established names from the Indian contingent – Leander Paes – has been missing.

The tennis ace is reached Rio on Thursday, while all other tennis team members have been present days before.

Landed with my Champion in Rio!!! Olympics here we come @mhingis @Olympics @ITF_Tennis @iocmedia pic.twitter.com/ahkD2cNET0 — Leander Paes (@Leander) August 4, 2016

His absence had forced doubles pair, Rohan Bopanna to find other alternatives to train, where he should have been rubbing shoulders with his partner to build up chemistry.

Under the non-playing captain, Zeeshan Ali, Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna and Prarthana Thombare have been putting in the hard yards, but there is hardly any news about Leander Paes.

Speaking to espn.in Zeeshan had said, "As captain obviously I would have wanted all the players to have been here to get used to the conditions and to get used to the courts. It is a tough situation right now with Rohan having to find people to practice with. We've got players from the other countries who are all practicing together and unfortunately Rohan is having to find people to practice with and that's not exactly the way we would have liked to prepare for the tournament."

Though Peas made his intentions clear with a tweet about the proudest moment of his career, but his on-field presence was massively missed by fellow players.

As I gear up for Rio, remembering one of the proudest moments of my career from 20 years ago today..#Olympics #IND  pic.twitter.com/d1xcdJQVd1 — Leander Paes (@Leander) August 3, 2016