Mumbai: 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. Leander Paes along with Mahesh Bhupati, remained the No. 1 doubles pair for a long time. (IANS)
