Here’s Why Leander Paes Is Regarded As India’s Best Tennis Player Ever

Manish Kalra takes a fan’s selfish view point to describe the multiple achievements of a patriot and tennis hero, Leander Paes. In a slightly indulgent piece, Manish has put together a “coming of age” story where the hero and his fan take different routes in their journey of life but reach the same message. A message that continues to be reinforced by Leander’s evergreen performances on the tennis court. Read on to find out that Message

Leander was a hero for me, from a long time ago. Ever since I saw him hit a ball in anger in a Davis Cup doubles match versus Japan in 1990. India won that match (18-16 in the fifth set) and Leander grabbed my attention as his energy, exuberance, agility and desire was apparent even in the grainy coverage of DD sports.
From that match onwards, Leander would rarely put a foot wrong when he played for India.

Creation of a Hero…

I was 15 years old and Leander was then a 16 year kid. It is an age where you believe miracles can happen.
It is an age where you believe that hard work, grit and a fighting spirit can beat talent on any given day.
An age where you want your country to win, come what may.

It was an age where Leander made all this and more come true for me by ensuring India beat top tennis playing nations like Switzerland, France, Croatia and Netherland at Davis Cup.
It is perhaps true that we shape our lives according to our hero’s. I would step into any game and like my hero, would fight tenaciously and scrap hard to make the most of my modest talents.

The Early Days

For Leander the singles player, things did not come easy. There was limited money even for an upcoming tennis star like Leander who was the World junior #1 and a junior Wimbledon champion. Indian tennis had yet to see sponsors come on board and Leander struggled to pay for a full time coach through his peak years.

Leander debuted on the pro tour in 1991 but the cold world of professional tennis with its cut-throat competition that promotes an individualist mindset did not quite seem to inspire Leander the patriot and team man. Exchange rate regulations meant that Leander would be handed 750 USD by his parents and told to play tournaments abroad till the money lasted. Much travelled Leander recently spoke poignantly about the time he had to convince a dressing room attendant to allow him to spend a night in the changing room of a tennis tournament.

There were solitary sparks of brilliance. However one tournament win and a victory over World #1 Pete Sampras in 1998 are meagre testimony to Leander’s skills on the professional singles circuit compared to his Davis Cup heroics.

In Leander’s words:

“I judged myself on how I performed in the Davis Cup. On that Friday-Saturday-Sunday there were no limits in my mind. If I believe strongly enough, it will be done. But I kept looking at the Davis Cup. Once a tie was over, I’d be looking three months down the road to the next tie. I just didn’t care enough about the tour. Davis Cup is the most important thing, and I love playing for my country.”

Progression of a team man and Davis Cup Star

From 1991 till 1993 as a singles player, Leander progressed from World #275 to 178. However, in partnership with Ramesh Krishnan he had already helped India beat top tennis nations like Switzerland in 1992 and France in 1993.

In 1993 he led India to a memorable Davis Cup win on clay against France. Known as the “Miracle of Frejus”, Leander won both his singles matches against the top French players (Henri Leconte and Andre Boetsch) to help India win the tie.

While playing for India, Leander would get pumped up and teary eyed at the same time on just listening to his favorite song, “Saare Jahaan se Achaa”. Fans would follow him and even sing for him. I too joined the Leander Fan Club and started following their forum for tennis results. But it was the Davis Cup week that was the most special time of the year.

Every time Leander pulled on an India jersey, he seemed to climb an invisible ladder and pull off some of the most inspired tennis that I will ever watch. It was not just that he beat half a dozen players ranked in the World top 25. It was the fact that with every slinging stroke, every sparkling volley and with every breath, he was fighting for India, for me and for a glory that only optimistic and diehard fans could understand.

As Nirmal Shekhar wrote for the Hindu, “Seasons change. So do the opponents. The stage changes. So does the audience. The playing surface changes. So do the conditions.. But, in Indian sport – in Indian tennis to be precise – there is one thing that seems permanent, one enduring, eternal and glorious constant: Leander Paes’s heroism in Davis Cup “.

Asian Glory

Leander also displayed his doubles prowess from an early age. He won a Gold medal for India in the Hiroshima Asian games in 1994 along with Gaurav Natekar. I was never one to wear my loyalties on my sleeve, but for years I enjoyed wearing a t-shirt which had Leander and Gaurav Natekar with tears in their eyes and the Asian games medal around their neck. I got that T shirt in Janpath and I wore it till it was in shreds.

Watching and cheering for Leander

By 1995, I saw Leander enact his heroic acts in person, at a Davis Cup tie on grass in Delhi against Croatia.
Leander won his singles match on Day 1. On Day 2, Leander and Mahesh Bhupathi won a doubles match against the then world #7, Goran Ivanesevic and his partner, with some help from a wildly patriotic crowd. Goran likened the crowd to a zoo in the press, but we did not mind one bit and went home with the oddly sounding slogan still reverberating in our ears and hearts, “It Pa(e)s to be Leander”.

On Day 3, Leander upset Goran Ivanesevic (who would go on to win Wimbledon later) and it was a feat so remarkable that even I had given up on our chances for this 4th tie, with the plan to visit the stadium to cheer India in the fifth tie.
I was told, Leander called the key cheerleaders over to his hotel for dinner that night and it is perhaps typical of the man.

Next: The Ultimate – Olympic Glory

The Ultimate – Olympic Glory

It was only natural then that Leander shone the brightest as a singles player, while representing India in the Olympics.

The 1996 Olympics in August saw Leander enter the singles competition as a Wild card ranked #127 in the world. A week later, Leander became the pride of 900 million Indians by winning the sole medal for India. That Olympic bronze is Leander’s greatest achievement and also matches the one won by his father for representing India at hockey.

During those Olympic Games, I woke up every morning and read the newspapers with a sense of amazement as Leander kept winning against higher ranked opponents while other Indian Olympians kept finishing short in their events.

My favorite player became my favorite team

And even as Leander was on his way to winning an Olympic medal, a beautiful friendship was forming between him and another Indian tennis hero, Mahesh Bhupathi. The story goes that around 1996, Leander picked up Mahesh Bhupathi as his doubles partner for the professional tour, even though Mahesh was junior to him and much lower in rankings.
The professional tennis circuit is very competitive and demanding and driven by a weekly ranking system that requires careful selection of tournaments and double partners. One wrong step and you may never qualify for the grand Slams and make it big.

Leander could have easily played more lucrative tournaments by partnering higher ranked international doubles players. Instead he made an instinctive decision to partner with an Indian and the risk came off spectacularly.
In 1997, Leander and Bhupathi got the Chennai crowd to its feet with their first ATP tournament win at the Indian Open.

And in 1998, although Mahesh Bhupathi had lost his ties in the Olympic Games, he decided to stay on to support and cheer Leander, a solitary gesture that contributed to the bronze medal and also helped cement their partnership.
More than the results which were slowly improving the two played with the rare chemistry, energy and dynamism that made their doubles play exciting to watch. I was simply blown off by their chest bumping style of irreverent aggression along with their ability to synchronize their movements, like two ice skaters performing a choreographed routine.

I would get my wife, a non-sports person, to watch with me, and even she could appreciate the rhythm and the vibrancy with which the Indian duo played.

To quote Rohit Brijnath, who wrote eloquently about the pair:

“To see them together was to believe in karma that a benevolent God had designed it this way. Off court they were like enthusiastic kids; on court they carried with them the intensity of a prizefighter, the nerve of an assassin, and the arrogance that champions wear like a musk. But always, in every way, they seemed to be tied together by an invisible umbilical cord.”

He goes on:

“Of all the hours I watched them, and spoke to them, of all the stories I knew of, three things I never forget. The way that after every point, anywhere, they touched hands (though other pairs do it too), like some constant re-affirmation of their friendship.
The way they explained that they just knew, through some sixth sense, where the other man was on court, giving the idea they were involved in some telepathic, athletic ballet.
And the way they looked at each when I asked, do you ever feel this sensation, this understanding, with anyone else, and them turning and saying, flatly, ‘No’.”

The charge of the INDIAN EXPRESS

The two were called the “Indian Express” a nickname that aptly conveyed the rapid momentum in their career. By early 1999 in the Australian Open, the Indians broke through to reach their first Grand Slam doubles final.
This was also the first time an Indian pair was playing a Grand Slam Doubles Final and I remember using a Java applet for the first time to follow Leander and Mahesh Bhupathi live over the internet for the first time. I had started coding for a leading software firm in India and should have known more about java applets but chose to know more about the close fifth set of the final which our pair lost in a close fight.

By the end of the year they were the best team in the world with a record of having played all 4 grand slam doubles finals and having won 2 of them (the first time an Indian doubles team had won a Grand slam).

Fame came visiting soon enough. They were interviewed on National television by the likes of Simi Garewal and they had become so popular that a television advertisement for a soft drink had them playing cricket.
Perhaps Fame had come visiting a bit too early in their doubles partnership. For the next 15 years of their tennis lives in many an unintended way they would be defined as much by their partnership as by a lack of the same.

Next: Derailing of the Indian Express

Derailing of the Indian Express

For the 2000 season which was also an Olympic year, my two heroes decided to go their own way on the professional circuit even as they planned to join hands during their week(s) of national duty at the Davis Cup or the Olympics.
A part of me has still not been able to understand or reconcile myself with the split. Even now when I think of their split, I still feel the same regret and gnawing emptiness that I feel on the many opportunities that I have missed in my life.

It is perhaps right that fans and the objects of their affection stay in separate worlds.
For if the two worlds would meet, I would have had words to say.
I would not have understood that they were individuals with the right to fight and to even choose their own paths. Perhaps I would have told them that in my messy world of office politics and petty ambitions, they could have continued to inspire me, that they had an opportunity to reach sporting immortality, to be firmly placed as my sporting Gods.

It seems that my Gods died young….
And as the once inseparable partners went their own way, a part of me had to grow up too.
I realized that fairy tales do end. That my heroes were human too, like the world around me.

Other Heroes

Other heroes came up and I started following them as well. Our cricket team started playing with the same passion as Leander. Gopichand overcame injury to win the All England Championship and Anand became world champion at chess.

Continued Davis Cup Success

The Indian Express also reunited to win another Grand Slam doubles title at the French Open in 2001 but it was a short lived reunion and before 2002 the Indian Express was back in the shed.

The duo could still combine very well and cared deeply for their country, to play Davis Cup with great success eventually putting up a world record 25 consecutive wins as doubles partners for India. Remarkably India still did well in Davis Cup and regularly reached the World Group Playoff (Top 24) till 2005. The vagaries of the Davis Cup draw, declining singles careers of our 2 stars along with the dents to the team spirit, however meant fewer BIG upsets.

Celebrating but not enjoying the success of the Indian Doubles Partner

On the professional circuit, Leander and Mahesh played with significant Grand Slam success with international partners. I followed their matches and admired Leander’s lethal reflexes and Mahesh’ powerful game, but for me something was missing when I saw these 2 doubles specialists play with other international partners even when they won Grand Slams.

It was like going to a birthday party but without your best friend. The cake and games and gifts were there, but no one with whom one could enjoy the party.

Wimbledon Victory with a Legend and Defeating Brain infection

By July 2003, in Leander’s own words he was the “vehicle for greatness” for Martina Navratilova and the two combined to win a Wimbledon Mixed doubles crown. In a few weeks after that Wimbledon triumph, Leander was in a cancer hospital for a suspected brain tumour that was later found to be neurocysticercosis, a parasitic brain infection.

For a moment I felt sad, the same way I would do for having missed out on keeping touch with a good friend, and in this case also a hero. Perhaps Mahesh felt the same about his friend as he went and spent time with Leander at the hospital.
Leander recovered as he has often done from setbacks, with his trademark resilience and was back to his best by 2004.

National Duty

In 2004, Leander and Mahesh came the closest to Olympic glory in Athens, eventually losing a 3rd place match to a Chilean team by the closest of margins. I was up till very late on a cold night watching the match on a small television, as our pair kept missing the opportunities they got in the match perhaps due to a lack of match practice.

The duo continued to override comments about their lack of practice time, even as they likened their partnership to riding a bicycle, while going on to claim the Gold medal at the Asian games in 2006

The Olympics however continued to bring despair in 2008, as our team found an inspired Roger Federer in their path, thereby spoiling my weekend lunch outing, though by now I was getting inured to their failures largely due to limited planning and preparation before the Olympics.

Next: Lessons from Leander

Rock Bands will do what Rock bands have always done

In 2011, I got my hopes high again as they reunited a year in advance of the Olympics and even went on to reach the Australian Open finals. I got inspired enough to write about them, likening them to an old rock band that still rocks.
This Rock Band went on to do what Rock bands often do…and parted ways again. This time the split sowed the seeds of a huge selection controversy during the Olympic 2012 team selections. End result – failure at the Olympics again.

Lessons from Leander

Leander has been truly inspirational in crafting a career over 25 painstaking years where he has let his individual results and performances on the court speak for him. To me his focus, fitness and passion over such a long career is exemplary.
FOCUS: In spite of his struggles with opponents, selectors, doubles partners, team members, his limited ground strokes and his naturally unlimited ambitions the one thing that continues to shine through is Leander’s unbelievable focus. The focus to put aside controversies and work with a multitude of different doubles partners (over 120 different partners) and yet win titles and doubles Grand Slams (14 in all).
FITNESS: Leander has run the hard miles and kept himself incredibly fit. A recent “Tennis” magazine article mentioned Leander as the fastest hands in tennis. To earn such glowing accolades for his reflexes at the age of 41 is no mean feat
PASSION: And finally Leander has retained the passion and hunger to excel, becoming the oldest man to win a doubles grand slam last year at the US Open in 2013. The same passion that has helped Leander record a mind boggling 88 wins for India in Davis Cup, has helped him sustain a very impressive doubles career.
Leander has taught me, to focus on performance, irrespective of distractions, and to retain a passion for success.

Raging against the fading of the Light

Like a true warrior Leander still rages against the fading of the light and is planning to take part in a world record 7th Olympics at the 2016 Rio games. The question I ask is whether Leander will find it in him to nurture another Indian doubles partner to win another Olympic medal, and whether he will last the course as he would be 43 by then. The one thing that is for sure is that it will not be for lack of effort from Leander the Indian tennis player.

As for me, I have definitely aged and perhaps even given up on fantastic notions like heroes but somewhere in distant lands, Leander Adrian Paes still beats a solitary and heroic path. All the while, his message is clear: Focus on performance, irrespective of distractions, and retain a passion for success.