Mumbai, August 27: It’s going to create quite a racket. Even as racquet ace Mahesh Bhupathi, 36, will sweat it out for honour and sport glory at the US Open 2010 Grand Slam Tennis (August 30 to September 12, 2010) in Flushing Meadows, New York…a certain “good friend”…Lara Dutta, 32, is also expected to join in and cheer from the VIP box reserved for family and close kin.
Tattle tabloids, however, are hoping for much more sizzle than that. Like a formal announcement, for instance?
Bhupathi is a “single man” presently, as his divorce with Shveta Jaishankar, snapping their seven year marital bond has come through. And Dutta can save herself some subterfuge from the media too, this time around.
The duo have been spotted hand in hand and superbly close at award events and the like, yet both have turned terribly coy when it comes to declaring their romantic commitement. And have rubbished rumours of a live in relationship.
Reportedly, Dutta will be in New York too for a prestigious magazine endorsement during the time Bhupathi courts tennis and close sources are swift to peddle her presence at the forthcoming Grand Slam as a mere coincidence.
States a close source, “Post September, Lara has shoots back to back and this is the only time that she will get to spend with Mahesh. Lara will join him in the US from China. Everyone is hopeful of a confirmation about their relationship as Mahesh is very much a single man now.”
——Agencies