Leander Paes
Leander Adrian Paes is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-time and holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men's doubles and ten mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. He holds a career Grand Slam in men's doubles and mixed doubles making him one of only three men in the Open era to achieve this distinction and won the rare men's/mixed double at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships. Paes, together with Mahesh Bhupathi, were the first pair in Open era history to reach the men's doubles finals of all 4 Grand Slams in the same calendar year. He is currently the brand ambassador of GS Delhi Aces, a team owned by Guru Samruddhi House of Investments in the Tennis Premier League.
His mixed doubles Wimbledon title in 2015 made him the second man to win Wimbledon titles in three different decades. He repeated the feat by winning a Roland Garros title in three different decades with his mixed doubles title in 2016.
Paes received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honor, in 1996–97; the Arjuna Award in 1990; the Padma Shri award in 2001; and India's third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan prize, in January 2014 for his outstanding contributions to tennis. He won a bronze medal for India in men's singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games making him the first Asian in Olympic history to win a tennis medal and the only Indian to date. He competed in consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016, making him the only tennis player to compete in seven Olympic Games. He is also the most decorated male tennis player in Asian Games history with 5 Gold and 3 Bronze medals. He was won medals in every category and is the highest Indian gold medal winning athlete across all sports in Asian Games history.
He is a former Davis Cup team captain, where in addition his Davis Cup all-time doubles win record with 45 victories, he also has the fourth highest number of overall wins in Davis Cup history with 93 total victories across singles and doubles in a 30 year career for India with match wins in 4 different decades. He played in World Team Tennis for the Washington Kastles. He was on the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 championship teams and was named Male MVP for 2009 and 2011. Paes retired from professional tennis in 2020, following his last Davis Cup tie in Croatia, with a record 1295 weeks spent ranked in the Top 100 in men's doubles.
On 20 July 2024, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.
Early life
Leander Adrian Paes was born in Calcutta, India on 17 June 1973. His father, Vece Paes, was a field hockey player of Goan Catholic descent. His mother, Jennifer Paes, was a Bengali basketball player from Calcutta. The family is Christian. He studied at La Martiniere Calcutta, Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School and at St. Xavier's College. His parents were both athletes. Vece was a midfield squad member in the bronze medal-winning Indian field hockey team at the 1972 Munich Olympics although he did not personally receive a medal as he did not take to the field in any of India's matches. His mother captained the Indian basketball team in the 1980 Asian basketball championship. Paes is a direct descendant of Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta through his mother.Paes enrolled with the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in Madras in 1985, where he was coached by Dave O'Meara. Paes earned international fame when he won the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and reached No. 1 in the junior world rankings at age 17.
Career
Early career (1991–1997)
Paes first won titles at the Junior US Open and the Junior Wimbledon. He turned professional in 1991. He became number 1 in the world junior rankings. In 1992, he reached the quarter finals of the doubles event in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with Ramesh Krishnan.At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics he beat Fernando Meligeni to win the bronze medal, the first Indian to win an individual medal since KD Jadhav won bronze at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Paes cited the match as one of his greatest performances, in part because his wrist was severely injured. He was awarded the highest sporting honor by the government of India, the Khel Ratna in 1996.
His first successful year in the ATP circuit came in 1993, when he partnered with Sébastien Lareau to reach the US Open doubles semifinal. After a moderate season in 1994, he reached the quarter-finals of the 1995 Australian Open doubles with Kevin Ullyett. From 1996, he partnered with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi. Their first year was not successful, especially in the Grand Slams, reaching the round of 32 only at Wimbledon. 1997 proved to be a much better year for the team, reaching the US Open semifinals. Paes climbed the doubles ranking from no. 89 at the beginning of the year to no. 14 at year-end. That year he made his best singles performance in a Grand Slam, losing in the third round of the 1997 US Open to Cédric Pioline after beating Carlos Costa and Arnaud Boetsch.
Rise in doubles (1998–2002)
Paes/Bhupathi grew stronger in 1998, and reached the semifinals of three Grand Slams, the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open. Leander Paes had two of his biggest singles results. The first one came by winning his only ATP singles title at Newport, and the second was beating Pete Sampras 6–3, 6–4 at the New Haven ATP tournament in their only meeting. In 1999, the duo reached the finals of all four Grand Slams, winning Wimbledon and the French Open, becoming the first Indians to win a doubles event at a Grand Slam. Paes teamed up with Lisa Raymond to win the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon. The year marked his ascent to the no. 1 doubles ranking. The following year, Paes partnered with Sébastien Lareau for the Australian and Jan Siemerink for the French, losing in the first round on both occasions. Paes again teamed with Bhupathi for the US Open, but lost in the first round again.The duo had a disappointing second round exit to Australian duo of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde at the Sydney Olympics. Paes was given the honor of carrying the Indian Flag at the opening ceremony.
In spite of winning the French Open in 2001, Bhupathi/Paes had first-round exits in the other three Grand Slams. Paes was awarded the Padmashri by the Government of India in 2001. The duo of Paes and Bhupathi won the gold medal at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan. In 2002, Leander paired up with Michael Hill with moderate success.
2003–2007
After 2003 Paes increasingly focused on doubles. He won the mixed doubles events at the Australian and Wimbledon with Martina Navratilova, both in 2003. Weeks later, Paes was admitted to the MD Anderson Cancer Center for a suspected brain tumour that was later found to be neurocysticercosis, a parasitic brain infection. He had to miss the US Open, but recovered by the end of that year.In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, he paired up with Bhupathi, failing again at the semifinals stage. His next Grand Slam success was in the US Open doubles event in 2006 with Martin Damm. Paes led the Indian tennis team at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 and won two golds in the men's doubles and mixed doubles. Paes maintained his doubles ranking in the top 20 in the world between 2005 and 2007. With wins in the Rotterdam and Indian Wells, Paes took his doubles tally to 38.
2008
Paes/Bhupathi took part in men's doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, who went on to win gold. With Cara Black he won the 2008 US Open mixed doubles title.2009
In 2009, he won the French Open and US Open Men's doubles titles with Lukáš Dlouhý and was the runner-up in mixed at the US Open.2010
He began the 2010 season in good form, again winning the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Cara Black. This was the pair's third consecutive Grand Slam final and the fourth overall.2012
Paes started the year pairing with Radek Štěpánek winning the Australian Open men's doubles beating the Bryan brothers and completed his Career Grand Slam in men's doubles. Paes then went on to complete at hattrick of wins at the Miami Masters with his 3rd consecutive win pairing with Štěpánek. Paes and Štěpánek's 2012 Wimbledon tournament ended when the duo lost to Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo. Paes and Elena Vesnina reached the finals of the Wimbledon mixed doubles after beating Bob Bryan and Liezel Huber, 7–5, 3–6, 6–3 on 7 July. They lost in the final to Lisa Raymond and Mike Bryan 3–6, 7–5, 4–6.In the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Indian pair lost to French team Michaël Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6–7, 6–4, 3–6.
Paes and Štěpánek advanced to the finals at the 2012 US Open after their Spanish opponents, Marcel Granollers and Marc López, retired because of injury. However the duo lost in the final of US Open 2012 to the Bryan brothers.
Paes and Štěpánek began the ATP World Tour Finals with a win against Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Dutchman Jean Julien Rojer, 6–4, 7–5. and avenged their loss to the Bryans and topped their group with 3 wins. They made it to the semifinals, where they were eliminated by eventual runners-up Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna.