Leander Peas
Leander Adrian Paes (born 17 June 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 the sports ambassador of Haryana. Paes completed the career grand slam in men's doubles after winning the Australian Open in 2012. Having won seven doubles and six mixed doubles Grand Slam titles and finishing as runner up in numerous other Grand Slam finals, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most respected contemporary doubles and mixed doubles players in the world. He is among the most successful professional Indian tennis players and is also the former captain of the Indian Davis Cup team. He is the recipient of India's highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, in 1996–1997; the Arjuna Award in 1990; and the Padma Shri award in 2001 for his outstanding contribution to tennis in India. Paes is the great-grandson of the Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt.
Apart from his thirteen Grand Slam victories in 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. He also achieved the rare men's doubles/mixed doubles double in the 1999 Wimbledon. His consecutive Olympic appearances from 1992 to 2008 make him the third Indian, after shooters Karni Singh and Randhir Singh, to compete at five Olympic Games. After winning the mixed doubles Wimbledon title in 2010, Paes became only the second man (after Rod Laver) to win Wimbledon titles in three different decades. In 2010, he joined the Board of Directors of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation co-founded by Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone to support talented athletes from India in winning Olympic medals. Apart from the ATP circuit, he also plays in the World TeamTennis competition for Washington Kastles, the team which won the 2009 and 2011 season contest, the latter of which being the first team to complete an undefeated season at 16–0. He was named as MVP of the tournament for the years 2009 and 2011.
Early life
Leander was born in Goa, India on 17 June 1973. He was born to Vece Paes and Jennifer Paes and was raised in Kolkata. He was educated at La Martiniere Calcutta, Madras Christian College Hr Sec School, Chennai, and the Loyola College, Chennai of the University of Madras. 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. His mother captained the Indian basketball team in the 1980 Asian basketball championship. Paes enrolled with the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in Madras (Chennai) in 1985, where he was coached by Dave O'Meara. 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.Even from a very young age, Leander was a very coordinated child. Hence, his parents put him to whatever sports they wanted. His sporting abilities were observed right from the beginning by his parents, allowed them to scientifically groom it and develop till such time Leander was enough old to take care of himself.
Lee's mother Jennifer remembers those early days with the same fondness. "His appetite for sports was so much that he could not concrete on anything else. He was quite naughty too," says Jennifer.
Stories of Leander's naughtiness and an impish sense of humour abound, as this one from his mother would show. "I used to take the three children then to Kolkata School of Music for piano lessons. The teacher there would give homework to do, and once she checked Leander's excercise book to find that he hasn't done his work", Jennifer stopped at this for a dramatic pause. The next few lines of conversation went somewhat like this:
Teacher: Where is your homework? Leander: I have done it Madam. Teacher: (pauses, checks the book again) But why can't I find it? Leander: No Madam, I did it, but my ayah rubbed it off.
Thus life went on for Leander – school, alternating between one sport to another and teasing and tormenting his elder sisters. He would often accompany his father to the Mohun Bagan ground and try his hand at hockey with an oversized stick or visit the basketball tent and cheer lustily from the sidelines as his mother strode the courts.
It was tennis where the eight year old Leander took his first steps at the Calcutta (Kolkata) South Club courts under Anwar Ali, brother of former Davis Cupper and national coach Akhtar Ali. As he grew up with everybody, including Akhtar, Jaidip Mukherjee and even Akhtar's son Zeeshan, a few seniors to him who later went to play the Davis Cup.
However, Kolkata did not have any proper coaching system then where the Paes couple could enroll their Lee or Leander. And that is when the BAT (Britiana Amritraj Tennis Academy) happened!
Career
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.
He rose to the number 1 in the world in the junior rankings. In 1992,
he reached the quarter finals of the doubles event in the 1992 Barcelona
Olympics with Ramesh Krishnan.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. Paes cited the match as one of his greatest performances on the court, in part because his wrist was severely injured. He was awarded the highest sporting honour by the government of India, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 1996. His first successful year in the ATP circuit came in 1993, when he partnered Sébastien Lareau to reach the US Open doubles semifinal. After having a moderate season in 1994, he reached the quarterfinals of the 1995 Australian Open doubles with Kevin Ullyett. From 1996, he partnered with fellow-Indian Mahesh Bhupathi, which would prove to be a winning combination. Their first 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 semifinals of the US Open their best Grand Slam result. Paes climbed the doubles ranking from no. 89 at the beginning of the year to no. 14 at the end of the year.
Rise in doubles (1998–2002)
The doubles team of Paes and Bhupathi grew stronger in 1998, reaching the semifinals 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 Pete Sampras, 6–3, 6–4, at the New Haven ATP tournament. In 1999, the duo reached the finals of all four Grand Slams, winning Wimbledon and the French Open, thus becoming the first Indian pair to win a doubles event at a Grand Slam. 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 doubles. The following year, Paes partnered with Sébastien Lareau for the Australian Open and Jan Siemerink for the French Open, losing in the first round on both occasions. Paes teamed up again with Bhupathi for the US Open, but lost in the first round again. The duo had a disappointing second -ound exit to Australian duo of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde at the Sydney Olympics, despite high hopes. Paes was given the honour of carrying the Indian Flag at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. In spite of a winning the French Open in 2001, the team of Bhupathi and Paes had first-round exits in the other three Grand Slams. Paes was awarded the Padmashri by the Government of India in 2001. The duo of Paes and Bhupathi won the gold medal at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan. In 2002, Leander paired up with Michael Hill for a number of tournaments, with moderate success.
2003–present
Between 2003 and the 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. In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, he paired up with Bhupathi, failing again at the semifinals stage. His next Grand Slam success was in the US Open doubles event in 2006 with Martin Damm. Paes led the Indian tennis team at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 and won two golds in the men's doubles (partnering Bhupathi) and mixed doubles (partnering Sania Mirza). Paes has maintained his doubles ranking in the top 20 in the world between 2005 and 2007. With wins in the Rotterdam and Indian Wells, Paes took his doubles tally to 38. Paes and Bhupathi took part in the men's doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, who went on to win the men's doubles gold medal. 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 Lukáš Dlouhý and was the runner-up in mixed doubles at the US Open. He began the 2010 season in good form, again winning the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Cara Black. This was the pair's third consecutive Grand Slam final and the fourth overall. The 2010 Wimbledon win with Black made Paes India's leading Grand Slam winner, ahead of his ex-doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi, with a total of 12 grand slam titles.Davis Cup career
Leander Paes started his Davis Cup career in 1990 at the young age of 16, when he partnered Zeeshan Ali in doubles to beat the Japanese team in a gruelling five-set encounter. He is considered one of the top Davis cup players for his country, with a record of 86–31 overall, as of January 2012. 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 semifinals of the 1993 Davis Cup with wins against Switzerland and France, eventually losing to Australia. In singles, his major wins came against French duo of Arnaud Boetsch and Henri Leconte in Frejus, France in 1993, Wayne Ferreira in 1994, and Goran Ivanišević in 1995 when India defeated Croatia, Jan Siemerink in 1995 to defeat Netherlands, and Jiří Novák in 1997. He teamed up with Bhupathi to beat Hirszon and Ivanisevic of Croatia in 1995, Martin Damm and Petr Korda of the 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 three wins (two doubles and one singles) and no losses in the Davis Cup.peas with his daughter
Personal life
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 (ex-wife of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt) and has a daughter Aiyana------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Content source : Wikipedia (english)
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