Leander Paes

Country	India
Residence	Kolkata, Mumbai, and Orlando, Florida
Date of birth	June 17, 1973 (1973-06-17) (age 36)
Place of birth	Calcutta (Kolkata)
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Weight	77 kg (170 lb; 12.1 st)
Turned pro	1991
Plays	Right-handed; one-handed backhand
Career prize money	US$5,469,296
Singles
Career record	99–98
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 73 (August 24, 1998)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2 RD (1997, 2000)
French Open	2 RD (1997)
Wimbledon	2 RD (2001)
US Open	3 RD (1997)
Doubles
Career record	524–271
Career titles	41
Highest ranking	No. 1 (June 21, 1999)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	F (1999, 2006)
French Open	W (1999, 2001, 2009)
Wimbledon	W (1999)
US Open	W (2006, 2009)
Major doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	F (1997, 1999, 2000, 2005)
Olympic Games	Fourth place (2004)
Mixed Doubles
Career record
Career titles	4
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	W (2003)
French Open	F (2005)
Wimbledon	W (1999, 2003)
US Open	W (2008)
Last updated on: September 18, 2009.

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  India
Men's Tennis
Bronze	1996 Atlanta	Singles

Leander Adrian Paes (born June 17, 1973) is an Indian professional tennis player who currently features in the doubles events in the ATP tour and the Davis Cup tournament. He is one of the most successful professional Indian tennis players and also the former captain of the Indian tennis team. He has won various doubles and mixed doubles events at the Tennis Grand Slam events. He is also the recipient of India's highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1996–1997 and the Padmashri award in 2001 for his contribution to tennis in India.

Apart from his ten Grand Slam victories at doubles and mixed doubles events, he is famous for his several memorable Davis Cup performances playing for India and also for winning a bronze medal for India in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Also, he achieved the rare Men's Doubles/Mixed Doubles double in the 1999 Wimbledon.

[edit] Early life

Leander was born in Kolkata formerly known as Calcutta, India. He was born to Vece Paes and Jennifer Paes and was raised in Kolkata, India. His family hails from the Goan Catholic community, a Christian community in Calcutta. He was educated at La Martiniere Calcutta. His parents were both sportspersons. His father Vece Paes was a midfielder in the bronze medal winning Indian field hockey team at the 1972 Munich Olympics.^[1] His mother captained the Indian basketball team in the 1980 Asian basketball championship. Paes enrolled with the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in Madras in 1985 where he was coached by Dave O'Meara.^[2] The academy played a key role in his early development. Leander shot into international fame when he won the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and rose to No.1 in the junior world-rankings. Paes is the great grandson of the Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt. Previously having dated Bollywood actress Mahima Chaudhary, he is now married to Rhea Pillai and has a daughter Aiyana Paes.

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career (1991–1997)

Paes showed promise early in his career by winning titles at the Junior US Open and the Junior Wimbledon. He turned professional in 1991.^[3] He rose to the number 1 in the world in the junior rankings.^[4] In 1992, he reached the quarter finals of the doubles event in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with Ramesh Krishnan.^[5]

He went one better at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where he beat Fernando Meligeni to win the Bronze medal, thus becoming the first Indian to win an individual medal since KD Jadhav won Bronze at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics more than four decades earlier.^[6] Paes cited the match as one of his greatest performances on the court, in part because his wrist was severely injured.^[7] He was awarded the highest sporting honour by the Government of India, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1996.^[8] His first successful year in the ATP circuit came in 1993 when he partnered Sébastien Lareau to reach the US Open doubles semi-final. After having a moderate season in 1994 he reached the Quarter final of the 1995 Australian Open doubles with Kevin Ullyett. From 1996 he started partnering with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi, which later would prove to be a winning combination. This year was not a very successful one, especially in the grand slams with a round of 32 finish at Wimbledon being the best. 1997 proved a much better year for the team of Paes and Bhupathi with the semi-finals of the US Open their best grand slam result. Paes climbed the doubles ranking from 89 at the beginning of the year to 14 at the end of the year.^[9]

[edit] Rise in doubles (1998–2002)

Leander Paes and his former doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi

The doubles team of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi grew stronger in 1998 reaching the Semi-Finals of 3 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 Pete Sampras at the New Haven ATP tournament.^{[10][11][12][13]} In the year 1999, the duo reached the finals of all the 4 grand slams winning the Wimbledon and the French Open, thus becoming the first Indian pair to win a doubles event at a Grand slam event. Paes also teamed up with Lisa Raymond to win the Mixed doubles event at Wimbledon. The year also marked his ascent to the No.1 ranking in the doubles.^[14] The following year Paes partnered with Sébastien Lareau for the Australian Open and Jan Siemerink for the French losing in the first round on both occasions. Paes teamed up again with Mahesh 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, despite high hopes.^[15] Paes was given the honour of carrying the Indian Flag at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.^[16] In spite of a winning the French Open in 2001, the team of Bhupathi and Paes had 1st round exits in the other 3 grand slams. Paes was awarded the Padmashri by the Government of India in 2001.^[17] The duo of Paes and Bhupathi won the gold medal at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan.^[18] In 2002 Leander paired up with Michael Hill for a number of tournaments with moderate success.

Leander Paes and Martina Navratilova pairing up in a Mixed doubles event

[edit] 2003–present

Between 2003 and present, Paes has increasingly focused on his doubles and mixed doubles game. Leander won the Mixed doubles events at the Australian Open and Wimbledon with Martina Navaratilova, both in 2003. Weeks after the win at Wimbledon, Paes was admitted to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center - Orlando for a suspected brain tumor that was later found to be neurocysticercosis, a parasitic brain infection. While being treated he had to miss the US Open, but he recovered by the end of that year.^[19] In the 2004 Athens Olympic games he paired up with Mahesh Bhupathi, failing again at the semi finals stage. His next Grand Slam success was in the U.S. Open doubles event in 2006. Paes lead the Indian tennis team at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 and won two golds in the Men's doubles (partnering Mahesh Bhupathi) and Mixed doubles (partnering Sania Mirza).^[20][21] Paes has maintained his doubles ranking in the top 20 in the world between 2005 and 2007.^[22][23] With wins in the Rotterdam and ATP Masters Series in Indian Wells, Paes has taken his doubles tally to 38, as of May 2007.^[24][25][26] Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi took part in the men's doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka ^[27] who went on to win the men's doubles gold medal ^[28]. Later in 2008, with Cara Black, he won the 2008 US Open Mixed Doubles title. In 2009, he won the French Open and US Open Men's Doubles titles with Lukas Dlouhy, and was the runner-up in the Mixed Doubles final of the US Open.

[edit] Davis Cup career

Leander Paes started his Davis Cup career in 1990 at a young age of 16, when he partnered Zeeshan Ali in the doubles to beat the Japanese team in a gruelling 5 set encounter. He is considered as one of the top Davis cup players for his country with a record of 81–30 overall as of May 2007.^[29][30] He played an important role in the Indian Davis cup team that reached the world group from 1991–1998. He was part of the Indian Davis Cup team that reached the Semi-Finals of the 1993 Davis Cup with wins against Switzerland and France, eventually losing out to Australia. In singles his major wins came against Wayne Ferreira in 1994, Goran Ivanišević in 1995 when India defeated Croatia, Jan Siemerink in 1995 to defeat Netherlands, Jiří Novák in 1997.^[31] In doubles his major wins include beating the French Team of Arnaud Boetsch and Henri Leconte in France with Ramesh Krishnan in 1993.^[32] He teamed up with Mahesh Bhupathi to beat Hirszon and Ivanisevic of Croatia in 1995, Martin Damm and Petr Korda of Czech Republic in 1997, Nicolás Massú and Marcelo Ríos of Chile in 1997, Broad and Tim Henman in 1998 and Simon Aspelin and Jonas Björkman of Sweden in 2005. In 2007, Leander has 3 wins (2 Doubles 1 singles) and no losses in the Davis Cup.

[edit] Major career wins

[edit] Singles titles

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
1.	July 6, 1998	Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.	Grass	Neville Godwin	6–3, 6–2

[edit] Men's doubles titles (41)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in final	Score in final
1.	April 7, 1997	Chennai, India	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Oleg Ogorodov Eyal Ran	7–6 7–5
2.	April 28, 1997	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Petr Luxa David Škoch	6–1 6–1
3.	July 28, 1997	Montreal, Canada	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Sébastien Lareau Alex O'Brien	7–6 6–3
4.	August 11, 1997	New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Sébastien Lareau Alex O'Brien	6–4 6–7 6–2
5.	September 29, 1997	Beijing, China	Hard (I)	Mahesh Bhupathi	Alex O'Brien Jim Courier	7–5 7–6
6.	October 6, 1997	Singapore	Carpet (I)	Mahesh Bhupathi	Rick Leach Jonathan Stark	6–4 6–4
7.	January 5, 1998	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Olivier Delaître Fabrice Santoro	6–4 3–6 6–4
8.	February 9, 1998	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Donald Johnson Francisco Montana	6–2 7–5
9.	April 6, 1998	Chennai, India	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Olivier Delaître Max Mirnyi	6–7 6–3 6–2
10.	May 11, 1998	Rome, Italy	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Ellis Ferreira Rick Leach	6–4 4–6 7–6
11.	October 5, 1998	Shanghai	Carpet (I)	Mahesh Bhupathi	Todd Woodbridge Mark Woodforde	6–4 6–7 7–6
12.	November 2, 1998	Paris, France	Carpet (I)	Mahesh Bhupathi	Jacco Eltingh Paul Haarhuis	6–4 6–2
13.	April 5, 1999	Chennai, India	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Wayne Black Neville Godwin	4–6 7–5 6–4
14.	May 24, 1999	French Open, France	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Goran Ivanišević Jeff Tarango	6–2 7–5
15.	June 21, 1999	Wimbledon, United Kingdom	Grass	Mahesh Bhupathi	Paul Haarhuis Jared Palmer	6–7 6–3 6–4 7–6
16.	July 5, 1999	Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.	Grass	Wayne Arthurs	Sargis Sargsian Chris Woodruff	6–7 7–6 6–3
17.	May 1, 2000	Orlando, Florida, U.S.	Clay	Jan Siemerink	Justin Gimelstob Sébastien Lareau	6–3 6–4
18.	October 9, 2000	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Michael Hill Jeff Tarango	6–4 6–7 6–3
19.	April 23, 2001	Atlanta, U.S.	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Rick Leach David Macpherson	6–3 7–6
20.	April 30, 2001	Houston, Texas, U.S.	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Kevin Kim Jim Thomas	7–6 6–2
21.	May 28, 2001	French Open, France	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Petr Pála Pavel Vízner	7–6 6–3
22.	August 6, 2001	Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Martin Damm David Prinosil	7–6 6–3
23.	December 31, 2001	Chennai, India	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Tomáš Cibulec Ota Fukarek	5–7 6–2 7–5
24.	April 29, 2002	Majorca, Spain	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Julian Knowle Michael Kohlmann	6–2 6–4
25.	February 24, 2003	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	David Rikl	Wayne Black Kevin Ullyett	6–3 6–0
26.	March 3, 2003	Delray Beach, Florida, U.S.	Hard	Nenad Zimonjić	Raemon Sluiter Martin Verkerk	7–5 3–6 7–5
27.	July 7, 2003	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	David Rikl	František Čermák Leoš Friedl	6–3 6–3
28.	June 7, 2004	Halle, Germany	Grass	David Rikl	Tomáš Cibulec Petr Pála	6–2 7–5
29.	July 5, 2004	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	David Rikl	Marc Rosset Stanislas Wawrinka	6–4 6–2
30.	July 26, 2004	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Jonas Björkman Max Mirnyi	6–4 6–2
31.	September 13, 2004	Delray Beach, Florida, U.S.	Hard	Radek Štěpánek	Gastón Etlis Martín Rodríguez	6–0 6–3
32.	April 11, 2005	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Nenad Zimonjić	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	walkover
33.	April 18, 2005	Barcelona	Clay	Nenad Zimonjić	Feliciano López Rafael Nadal	6–3 6–3
34.	September 26, 2005	Bangkok	Hard (I)	Paul Hanley	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	6–7 6–1 6–2
35.	June 19, 2006	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Martin Damm	Arnaud Clément Chris Haggard	6–1 7–6
36.	August 28, 2006	US Open, U.S.	Hard	Martin Damm	Jonas Björkman Max Mirnyi	6–7 6–4 6–3
37.	February 19, 2007	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard (I)	Martin Damm	Andrei Pavel Alexander Waske	6–3 6–7 [10–7]
38.	March 5, 2007	Indian Wells, California, U.S.	Hard	Martin Damm	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	6–4 6–4
39.	September 21, 2008	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard (I)	Lukáš Dlouhý	Scott Lipsky David Martin	6–4 7–6(4)
40.	June 6, 2009	French Open, France	Clay	Lukas Dlouhy	Wesley Moodie Dick Norman	3–6 6–3 6–2
41.	September 13, 2009	US Open, U.S.	Hard	Lukas Dlouhy	Mahesh Bhupathi Mark Knowles	3–6 6–3 6–2

[edit] Grand Slam finals

[edit] Men's doubles: 11 finals (6 titles, 5 runner-ups)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1999	Australian Open	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Jonas Björkman Patrick Rafter	6–3, 4–6, 6–4, 6–7(10), 6–4
Winner	1999	French Open	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Goran Ivanišević Jeff Tarango	6–2, 7–5
Winner	1999	Wimbledon	Grass	Mahesh Bhupathi	Paul Haarhuis Jared Palmer	6–7(10), 6–3, 6–4, 7–6(4)
Runner-up	1999	US Open	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Sébastien Lareau Alex O'Brien	7–6, 6–4
Winner	2001	French Open (2)	Clay	Mahesh Bhupathi	Petr Pála Pavel Vízner	7–6, 6–3
Runner-up	2004	US Open	Hard	David Rikl	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–3, 6–3
Runner-up	2006	Australian Open	Hard	Martin Damm	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
Winner	2006	US Open	Hard	Martin Damm	Jonas Björkman Max Mirnyi	6–7(5), 6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	2008	US Open	Hard	Lukáš Dlouhý	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	7–6(5), 7–6(10)
Winner	2009	French Open (3)	Clay	Lukáš Dlouhý	Wesley Moodie Dick Norman	3–6, 6–3, 6–2
Winner	2009	US Open (2)	Hard	Lukáš Dlouhý	Mahesh Bhupathi Mark Knowles	3–6, 6–3, 6–2

[edit] Mixed doubles: 8 finals (4 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1999	Wimbledon	Grass	Lisa Raymond	Jonas Björkman Anna Kournikova	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Winner	2003	Australian Open	Hard	Martina Navrátilová	Todd Woodbridge Eleni Daniilidou	6–4, 7–5
Winner	2003	Wimbledon (2)	Grass	Martina Navrátilová	Andy Ram Anastassia Rodionova	6–3, 6–3
Runner-up	2004	Australian Open	Hard	Martina Navrátilová	Elena Bovina Nenad Zimonjić	6–1, 7–6
Runner-up	2005	French Open	Clay	Martina Navrátilová	Daniela Hantuchová Fabrice Santoro	3–6, 6–3, 6–2
Winner	2008	US Open	Hard	Cara Black	Jamie Murray Liezel Huber	7–6, 6–4
Runner-up	2009	Wimbledon	Grass	Cara Black	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Mark Knowles	7–5, 6–3
Runner-up	2009	US Open	Hard	Cara Black	Carly Gullickson Travis Parrot	6–2, 6–4

[edit] Doubles performance timeline

A = did not attend tournament

[edit] Controversies

Leander Paes and his off and on partnership with fellow Indian tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi draws constant media attention in home country India.^[33][34][35] In the 2006 Asian Games, a loss to the Chinese Taipei in the team event led Leander to question Bhupathi's commitment to Team India.^[36] He once stated in an interview that although he and Bhupathi are friends, he did not consider pairing with his former team-mate.^[37] However, for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, they decided to play together for their country,^[38] and lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champions Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.^[39]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Leander Paes

• Davis Cup Player's Profile Site
• Leander Paes Fan Site
• Leander Paes at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Official Site