Mumbai, Sep 12
The effervescent and
age-defying Leander Paes has again done India proud. This time around,
on the hard courts of the US Open, the 42-year-old legend partnered
Swiss veteran Martina Hingis -- his 24th mixed doubles partner -- to
beat unseeded Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sam Querrey 6-4, 3-6,
10-7 in the final.
After one hour and 17 minutes of tussle, Paes
pocketed his 17th Grand Slam title. His illustrious career, marked by
high level of consistency, unfliching devotion and undying spirit, now
includes nine mixed doubles titles and eight doubles titles.
With
this title, 42-year-old Paes became the first man to pocket nine mixed
doubles title, surpassing compatriot and former doubles partner Mahesh
Bhupathi, who has eight.
Paes and Hingis also first team since 1969 and second in the Open era to capture three of four Majors in a calendar year.
At
an age where profession sportspersons look for their second innings,
Paes seemed to be unstoppable, still having the hunger of a boy who was
trained at the Britannia Tennis Academy run by the Amritraj family.
Paes,
whose father Vece Paes was a member of the Indian hockey team which won
a bronze medal in the 1972 Munich Olympics and mother, Jennifer, was a
member of the national basketball team, began playing tennis at the age
of five and still feels he has many things to learn and that seems to be
the key.
Paes, who is known as one of the best volleyers and a
talented drop-shotter, made his presence felt in the tennis world by
winning the Wimbledon Junior title way back in 1990 at age 17 - and this
eventually proved to be the the turning point of his career.
Since then, the Calcutta (now Kolkata) born has been representing India at various international tournaments.
He
has brought glory to the country by winning many tournaments, of which
the Davis Cup and the bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics 1996 is worth
mentioning.
Paes remained the No.1 junior player in the world for some time at the start of his career.
Paes,
along with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi, created a sensation in
international tennis by winning many of the coveted Grand Slam doubles
titles, including the Wimbledon and the French Open tournaments. It can
be rightly said that the Indian tricolour always brings the best out of
him.
The doubles team of Paes and Bhupathi grew stronger in 1998,
reaching the semi-finals of three Grand Slams, the Australian Open, the
French Open, and the US Open. In the same year, Paes had two of his
biggest singles results in the ATP tour.
The first one came by
winning an ATP singles title at Newport, and the second was beating the
legendary Pete Sampras, 6-3, 6-4 at the New Haven ATP tournament in
their only meeting throughout his career.
Paes' record at the
Davis Cup has been simply superb, where he has grounded players much
higher in ranking than him. He, along with Bhupati, remained the No. 1
doubles pair for a long time.
One of the most successful
professional Indian tennis players, Paes has received the Rajiv Gandhi
Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour, in 1996; the Arjuna
Award in 1990; the Padma Shri in 2001 and India's third highest civilian
award, the Padma Bhushan, in 2014 for his outstanding contribution to
tennis in India.
Despite facing several obstacles like a
parasitic infection in his brain which threatened his playing career way
back in 2003, or his controversies involving his personal life, Paes
has marched ahead, making the country proud.
In 2015, even
though his doubles ranking has not been up and running, he has
compensated for this by winning three Major mixed doubles titles.
And,
with less than a year left for the 2016 Olympics, the expressive and
patriotic Indian seems to be all set for a final hurrah at the
quadrennial extravaganz
