For the last couple of days, the Indian tennis team has been slugging it out on the practice courts at Rio under the watchful eye of non-playing captain Zeeshan Ali. Curiously, while Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna and Prarthana Thombare have been putting in the hard yards, Leander Paes is yet to arrive in the city.Paes will partner Bopanna in the mens doubles and the competition is scheduled to begin on Saturday, August 6, leaving the pairing with precious little time to practice and prepare. Ali, who also serves as the coach of the Davis Cup team, says he is in the dark about Paes whereabouts and has had no contact with him of late, leaving him with no choice but to simply wait and watch.?Paes is now expected to arrive in Rio later on Thursday.Yes definitely it is not the ideal preparation, Ali told ESPN. For the AITA and me being a selector too, with the Davis cup in Chandigarh two weeks back, the whole idea was to get both the players (Paes & Bopanna) to try and get as much practice as they can. So arriving on the 4th for a match that may be on the 6th is definitely not enough time.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. Weve got players from the other countries who are all practicing together and unfortunately Rohan is having to find people to practice with and thats not exactly the way we would have liked to prepare for the tournament.ESPN understands that at a meeting between the players, AITA officials and coaches on the sidelines of the Davis cup tie in Chandigarh last month, Paes had agreed to arrive in Rio along with the rest of the players by August 1. However, he has chosen instead to play in the ongoing World Team Tennis in New York. Although his Twitter feed contains several recent references about competing in his seventh Olympics, by delaying his arrival into Rio, Paes has given himself very little opportunity to be well prepared to contend for a medal.Bopanna, who had in fact asked to be partnered with Saketh Myneni and not Paes for these Games, is staying upbeat despite his partner missing in action. Besides practicing with Mirza, with whom he will partner in the mixed doubles, Bopanna has found fellow pros from other countries to get some preparation time in. On Wednesday, he spent the first bit of his training schedule playing alongside Serbias Nenad Zimonjic before changing courts to link up with Mirza. With Paes unavailable, Ali joined forces with Thombare, who is at her first Olympics and will play the womens doubles with Mirza, to give Bopanna and Mirza a hit out as they look to find some rhythm as a mixed doubles combination.I think you should ask the captain, the captain is the one who tells me when hes here or not, Bopanna told ESPN when asked to comment on Paes absence. I have come here a few days earlier to get used to the conditions, practice as much as I can and work it from there. So theres nothing really to be affected or not affected by it. This is an individual sport, everyone chooses when to come and when not to come. It is not in my hands to do anything about it. I can only be prepared once my partner is here. Right now Sania is here, I am practicing as much as I can with her and take it from there.In the eyes of most observers, given Paes extended run of patchy form that has seen him slip below 50 in the world rankings, a mens doubles medal is highly unlikely. Now, with very little acclimatisation as a combination, the unseeded pairing will perhaps need a minor miracle to make a run at Rio. Paes and Bopanna have been drawn against Polish team of Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot in the mens doubles first round. Wholesale Throwback Jerseys . Meanwhile, there were huge victories for Sunderland and West Ham over fellow relegation rivals, leaving the battle to avoid the drop up for grabs with the bottom 11 teams separated by just six points. Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres scored second-half goals to seal a fourth straight victory for Chelsea, which climbed above Arsenal and Manchester City in the standings ahead of their games on Monday and Sunday respectively. Cheap NFL Womens Jerseys . Dusautoir, the former World Player of the Year, sustained a torn bicep playing for Toulouse in the Heineken Cup on Saturday. The flanker, who has played 65 times for France, is expected to be out for up to four months. http://www.cheapjerseysfootball.com/ . Two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 15 race in an area packed with fans cheering the passing runners. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured, including at least 16 who lost limbs. Cheap NFL T-shirts . Despite dominating possession, Schalke needed an own goal from Nicolas Hoefler for the breakthrough a minute before the interval. The Freiburg midfielder misjudged Jefferson Farfans corner and bundled the ball into his own net. Cheap NFL Autographed Jerseys .C. -- Calgarys Kevin Koe did it the hard way again. CEDAR CITY, Utah -- Jarmaine Doubs 98-yard interception return with less than a minute to play lifted Southern Utah to a 45-31 win against Portland State on Saturday night.Trailing 38-31, Vikings quarterback Alex Kuresa led an eight-play, 81-yard drive to Southern Utahs 4-yard line before the interception, which was Kuresas fourth of the game.Kuresa threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns and added 18 carries for 133 yards and a touchdown.Southern Utah (2-1, 1-0 Big Sky) built a 31-10 halftime lead before the Vikingss second-half rally cut the deficit to seven.dddddddddddd.For the Thunderbirds, Patrick Tyler threw for 249 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions and Malik Brown had 15 carries for 173 yards and a touchdown. Raysean Pringle added 118 yards on the ground with eight carries and two touchdowns. Mike Sharp had five receptions for 139 yards and two scores.Portland State fell to 1-3, 0-1. ' ' '