Paes, Leander

Leander’s father - Veche - played field hockey and was declared for the Indian national team at the 1972 Olympic Games , but did not go on the field. Paes's mother, Jennifer Dutton, is the great-granddaughter of the famous Bengali poet Michael Modhushudon Dotto ; was engaged in basketball and was the captain of the Indian national team in this sport.

On April 3, 2006, Paes had a daughter, Aiyana.

Single career

A native of Calcutta showed his level of claims even at the junior level, when in the early 1990s he was able to visit the finals of the Grand Slam tournaments three times and at some point lead the junior rating. In parallel with this, the Indian began his adult career: after several finals at the lower level tournaments of the men's tour, in April 1991 Paes receives a special invitation to the basis of the major ATP tournament in Singapore , where Leandra manages to win his debut match at a similar level, having beaten the match the first lap of the then 53rd racket of the world of Australian Wally Mazur .

In June of the same year, the Indian made his debut in the qualification of the adult Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon . Leander succeeds in overcoming the qualification for the first time only three years later - at his tenth Grand Slam tournament - US Open - 1994 - he first held the main bracket match, losing in three sets to Bernd Karbacher , then the 43rd racket of the world.

In other tournaments, Paes also did not show any special results, moving very gradually up the single classification: he managed to rise to the number of the two hundred strongest tennis players in the world on the eve of the 1993 season; and it took almost five years to get on Pinterest — it was only on September 8, 1997, that the Indian first entered the singles rating on Pinterest, taking the 98th line. This was partly due to the fact that Paes scored the majority of points in ATP Challenger tournaments , and rarely competed longer than 1-2 matches in the main tournaments. However, at some stage, the results began to improve, and there, and in July 1996, Leander got his first semifinal at the ATP tournaments , reaching this stage at the competitions in Newport , having beaten the 29th Byron Black racket from Zimbabwe on the way . Soon after, the main success in the solitary career of the Indian followed: overcoming the resistance of Thomas Enquist and Richie Reneberg, he won the bronze medal of the Olympic Games in Atlanta .

Subsequently, the Indian several times played in the semi-finals of various competitions of the main round, but only made it to the finals once - in the same Newport in 1998 and was able to win right away. Shortly afterwards, Leander reached his peak in his solo career - having beaten the then second racket of the world of Pete Sampras at the gold series tournament in New Haven, he climbed to 73rd place in the single classification. It was not possible to stay at such a level for a long time - Leander began to gradually fall in the rating: first having settled in the middle of the second hundred of the rating, and after leaving the 2000 season, too. The results declined in the future, and soon Paes plays only home tournaments and Daeis Cup matches , but in April 2008 it ends and all this and Leander focuses on doubles.

Paired Performances

In doubles, the Indian’s career developed much faster - already in 1992, after a few tournaments in the adult tour, Leander, together with Ramesh Krishnan made his debut at the Olympics . An Indian couple in the second round of that tournament knocked out one of the pre-launch favorites of the tournament - the Australian Woodbridge / Fitzgerald couple.

The next time the name Leander was in the spotlight in the fall of 1993, when, along with Canadian Sebastien Laro, the Indian reached the US Open semifinal, beating a strong Neussen / Souk pair on the way. After this event, Paes first entered the Top 100 pair classification.

Success in major tournaments for a while is only episodic in nature and only since September 1995, when a couple with Mahesh Bhupati began to constantly play enough at major tournaments, the results gradually became more stable, without losing quality. In January 1997, the Indian couple first reached the final of the ATP tournaments and immediately won, winning the main prize of the competition in Chennai . In the future, the couple improves their results more and more, reaching a peak in 1999, when he plays in the final of the five largest tournaments of the year (having won two Grand Slam tournaments) and leads the rating. In the future, the results are gradually reduced. Due to periodic friction, Indians pause cooperation.

During these breaks, Leander periodically collaborates with other strong pair players and also succeeds. Most often, representatives of the Czech Republic are in the role of his partners: with Martin Damm , Lukas Dlougi and Radek Stepanek, he wins the Grand Slam tournaments, with David Rickle reaches the finals; cooperation with Tomasz Tsibulz also brings some success.

Another successful alliance was cooperation in 2005 with Serb Nenad Zimonich : the couple won several tournaments and reached the final of the Final tournament (the only time Paes played in the decisive match of this tournament without Bhupati).

Having won the Australian Open in 2012, Paes collected the so-called "Career Grand Slam" in the men's doubles.

Since 1999, having started cooperation with the American Lisa Raymond , the results of the Indian have also improved in the mixed doubles: in a short time, Leander became one of the strongest tennis players in this category: working with Raymond, Navratilova , Shonessi , Black and Vesnina, he reached the tournament finals thirteen times Grand Slam and won six titles.

Paes in the Davis Cup

Leander has been playing for the national team continuously since 1990 for more than 20 years and has played 121 matches during this time (89 of which he won), which are the records of the Indian national team in the history of the Davis Cup. Leander also leads in the number of wins in a pair (41 wins with 10 defeats) and the number of matches of the team in which he took part (51). In doubles, Paes remained unbeaten in the Davis Cup in 2002-2011, and together with Bhupati they won 24 consecutive victories in 1997-2010, which is a record for couples in the Davis Cup ^[4] .

It is interesting that Paes made his national team debut at the age of 16 in March 1990 in a home match with the Japanese national team and brought Zishan Ali with a winning third point, defeating the Japanese Matsuoka / Ota couple with a score of 4-6 6-3 6-4 4-6 18-16. The last time Paes played in the Davis Cup in September 2014, when he paired with Rohan Bopannoy managed to recoup from the score 0-2 in sets against the Serbian couple and win (the Indian team lost to the Serbs with a score of 2-3 at home in Bangalore ).

In 2004-2008, Leander led the national team in the Davis Cup , while being its current player.

Paes at the Olympics

Leander 7 times in a row ( 1992 , 1996 , 2000 , 2004 , 2008 , 2012 and 2016 ) took part in the Summer Olympic Games. Despite the fact that Paes is the master of the doubles game, he managed to win his only medal in singles - in 1996, at the games in Atlanta in the match for third place, Paes beat Brazilian Fernando Meligeni and won bronze. This bronze was the first individual Olympic medal for India since 1952 .

In 2000, Sydney Paes was honored to fly the flag of India at the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

In 2008, in Beijing , the Bhupati / Paes pair lost in the quarterfinals to the future Olympic champions Federer / Wavrinka 2-6 4-6.

Other tournaments

The Indian regularly played for India and in various regional tournaments, repeatedly representing his country at the Asian Games and the games of the British Commonwealth .

Three times - in 1994, 2002 and 2006 - Paes won the men's doubles tournament in the framework of the Asian Games (twice - with Bhupati) and once - in 2006 - was able to win the mixed pairs tournament (together with Sanya Mirza ).

• Ex-first racket of the world in doubles.
• 18-time winner of the Grand Slam tournaments in doubles and mixed doubles (including the holder of the so-called “career Grand Slam” in men's doubles and mixed doubles).
• 4-time finalist of the final ATP tournament in doubles.
• Winner of 55 ATP tournaments (54 in doubles).
• Bronze medalist of the 1996 Olympic Games in singles.
• 4-time champion of tennis tournaments in the framework of the Asian Games .
• Ex-first racket of the world in the junior ranking.
• Winner of 2 Junior Grand Slam Singles Tournaments ( Wimbledon , US Open-1990 ).
• Finalist of the 1st junior grand slam tournament in singles ( Australian Open-1990 ).

• Profile on ATP website

• Profile on ITF website
• Profile on the Davis Cup website

• Statistics of performances at the Olympics (eng.)