LAST week, I watched Leander Paes grab yet another Grand Slam doubles title showing the same zeal and eagerness that he displayed nearly 20 years ago. Fast hands, adroit anticipation, stop volleys to finish rallies, kills on the net to stop opponents in their tracks and of course always mind over matter. Paes has played tennis using a cerbral approach, using tactics and strategies to map out adversaries, out thinking and out guessing them with his singular serve and volley style of play. Strangely, the serve and volley player has won three men’s doubles crowns at the Roland Garros. It was fitting that his erstwhile partner in mixed doubles Martina Navratilova was sitting in the stands watching. Just short of his 36th birthday, Lee’s longevity in modern tennis is simply amazing and outstanding. In sport, it is easy to give way to hyperbole, but with Leander Adrian Paes, every adjective is apt. For more than his playing skills, his big heart for India stands out.
Vece Paes, Lee’s father was my doctor in Calcutta now Kolkata in the early eighties. A kind hearted man with a wonderful bedside manner, Vece guided me through a painful knee surgery. His son Lee was already hitting tennis balls in South Club and kicking footballs in CCFC. His ball playing skills were quite famous even then. He was short but spunky. Even as a kid, he hated losing. Small man with a large heart as it turned out. Vece played hockey for India and was part of the bronze medal winning 1972 Munich Olympics side. His misfortune was that he played as centre half and a man called Ajit Pal Singh towered above everyone else in Indian hockey those days. But Vece obviously played an important role in the development of young Lee. His mother Jenifer also played for India, though a different sport – basketball.
Those days Calcutta was heralding another tennis star for Lee was very young. Former player and then coach Akhtar Ali’s son Zeeshan was making rapid strides. So, Job Charnock’s city which had produced Naresh Kumar, Premjit Lal and Jaideep Mukherjee was readying to usher in another star. But sadly Zeeshan flattered to deceive. And that left a huge vacuum in Indian tennis. For there was only Ramesh Krishnan holding the fort for India. And then suddenly the Britannia Amritraj Tennis (BAT) academy threw up Leander Paes. He won the bronze at the Atlanta Olympics and played out of his skin repeatedly in Davis Cup. It was all about raising the bar for himself. I was fortunate those days to cover India’s run in Davis Cup. Ramesh Krishnan had become a friend and young Lee in any case was well known to me. I saw Lee’s heroics against Goran Invansivec, the Brits, the Dutch and many other sides. I often wondered how does this boy raise his game, what motivates him, what drives him to perform at the highest level? Why was it always do or die for India? How did he pump himself up to attain near perfection against much higher ranked opponents in singles in the Davis Cup. I once asked him privately and pat came his answer – I will bust my guts for India, it means everything to me. The tri colour draped around him after a famous victory will remain an abiding image of Leander. One has seen it repeatedly over the years. Like Old Man River, Leander now days short of his 36th birthday continues to surprise everyone with his fitness, commitment and skill sets.
It was all about India, his country which drove him to battle against all odds and all comers. Towards the latter part of his career Vijay Amritraj had displayed a similar aggressive mien while turning out for India in the Davis Cup. While Ramesh and Lee sculpted a famous victory over France at Frejus, Lee found his true calling and metier when Mahesh Bhupathi emerged on the scene. The combination was lethal. Ramesh Krishnan was a wonderful singles player, Bhupathi was a great doubles player. The Lee-Hesh Express was deadly dangerous and it discovered very quickly that it could defend its own in world doubles. What the Amritraj brothers couldn’t do in doubles, the duo managed to achive in double quick time. Lee realising quickly that his future lay in doubles teamed up with Bhupathi. Bhupathi with a booming serve and Lee with his deadly volleys at the net became the toast of men’s doubles. Leander’s genius has always been in his sense of timing and interception at the net. His fast hands have enabled him to finish off points and games. Over and above that, he has maintained very high levels of fitness to survive in world tennis now for close to 20 years.
The duo became champions of the world and I guess those days only the Woodies – Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde were a step ahead, but only just. The Woodies won 11 men’s doubles Grand Slams and 61 other ATP doubles titles. Lee’s highest ranking in singles was 73. After winning the junior Wimbledon and junior US Open titles, Lee was the big singles star in India, but he must have soon realised that life on the circuit is extremely tough. I remember that financing his stint in Orlando was a problem initially. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Lee reached the doubles quarter finals with Ramesh and this probably goaded him into concentrating on doubles. In 1993, he reached the doubles semi finals at the US Open with Sebastien Lareau and this must have convinced him about his new vocation in an extremely competitive dog eat dog world of men’s tennis. At the 1995 Australian Open, he reached the men’s doubles quarter final with Kevin Ulyett.
And then Ergo, in 1996, he found Mahesh Bhupathi. The Indian Express began to roll. In 1997, the duo reached the US Open semis. In 1998 they went one better – three semi final places in three Grand Slam events. The following year, they reached the finals of all four, winning two – Wimbledon and Frech Open. He won the mixed doubles too with Lisa Raymond and vanquished Pete Sampras in the New Haven singles event. It was his best year. Leander has now won 9 Grand Slam doubles titles – five men’s and four mixed. And somewhere he must be smiling for he now has one men’s doubles title more than Mahesh (Mahesh has seven mixed doubles Grand Slams as well). But this journey for Lee has not been without twists and turns. An ugly break up with Mahesh, much mud slinging and affairs with Anupama Verma, Mahima Chaudhary finally culminating in marriage to another model Rhea Pillai. Fate dealt him a cruel blow in 2003, when he was suspected to have a brain tumour, which turned out to be a parasitic brain infection. Treated at the M D Anderson Cancer Centre in Orlando, Paes returned from that adversity to remain one of the foremost doubles exponents. With 40 ATP doubles titles and career prize money in excess of $ 5.5 million, Leander has exhibited admirable resolve while playing for himself and his country.
His greatest attribute is his selflessness while playing for India in the Davis Cup. An exemplary record in singles and doubles amplifies this. Lee is driven despite playing for so many years. In fact he seems to be getting better with age. Last year he reached the finals of the men’s and mixed doubles, winning the latter with Cara Black. Only last week, he added another major bauble – the French Open. The mixed doubles title in 2008 coming after a two year drought on the Grand Slam circuit.
Acrimony with Bhupathi has seen much muck being thrown about, but both have gone their separate ways and performed spectacularly. Imagine between them they have 20 Grand Slam titles. From Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh, Vijay and Anand Amritraj, Premjit Lal, Jaideep Mukherjee, Indian tennis managed nothing. And they were all great players, second to none in combativeness and skill. Of Leander’s 40 ATP wins, as many as 23 have come with Mahesh Bhupathi including three Grand Slams.
