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Leander Paes
Leander Paes has been the flag bearer of Indian tennis for over a decade. He is one of the greatest contemporary doubles and mixed doubles tennis players in the world.

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Leander Paes, Indian Tennis PlayerLeander Paes has been consistent for many years now in the world of tennis. He, along with Sania Mirza, had represented India in all the major grand slams held all throughout the year including the Australian Open, Australian Open etc. For three decades he had been making India proud in the matches he played.

Early Life of Leander Paes
Leander was born in Calcutta, India, on 17th June 1973 to a Goan father. Vece Paes and Jennifer Paes were his parents. He was raised in Kolkata (Calcutta) and educated at La Martiniere Calcutta, and the St. Xavier`s College of the University of Calcutta. His parents were both sports persons. Vece 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. In this academy he developed as a player and became one of the best young players in tennis. The youngster rose to fame in 1990 when he captured the Junior Wimbledon title and the No.1 ranking in junior tennis. Leander Paes was ranked as the World No. 6 in the ATP Doubles Ranking in 2008.

Personal Life of Leander Paes
Paes had dated Bollywood actress Mahima Choudhury for few years. He then had a live-in relationship with Rhea Pillai, with whom he also has a daughter but later there was a rumour that they were not married and would be separating.

Leander Paes, Indian Tennis PlayerEarly Playing Career of Leander Paes
Paes first won titles at the Junior US Open and the Junior Wimbledon and he turned professional in 1991. He rose to the number 1 in the world junior rankings. In 1992, he reached the quarter finals of the doubles event in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with Ramesh Krishnan.

Paes began a doubles partnership with countryman Mahesh Bhupathi in 1994. In both 1997 and 1998, the duo captured six Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles titles out of the eight tournament finals they reached during each year. Paes and Bhupathi advanced to the doubles finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in 1999, winning the French Open and Wimbledon but losing in the Australian and U.S. Opens. That year saw the pair ascend to the number one ATP doubles ranking, but personal problems between them soon led to the dissolution of their full-time partnership.

Leander Paes" Career in Doubles
Paes has won 55 doubles titles so far and has been a runner up 39 times during his long and illustrious career. He had played with over 100 different players in his doubles career. His doubles career titles are as follows:

Year Championship Partner Outcome
1999 Australian Open Mahesh Bhupathi Runner-Up
1999 French Open Mahesh Bhupathi Winner
1999 Wimbledon Mahesh Bhupathi Winner
1999 US Open Mahesh Bhupathi Runner-Up
2001 French Open Mahesh Bhupathi Winner
2004 US Open David Riki Runner-Up
2006 Australian Open Martin Damm Runner-Up
2006 US Open Martin Damm Winner
2008 US Open Lukas Dlouhy Runner-Up
2009 French Open Lukas Dlouhy Winner
2009 US Open Lukas Dlouhy Winner
2010 French Open Lukas Dlouhy Runner-Up
2011 Australian Open Mahesh Bhupathi Runner-Up
2012 Australian Open Radek Stepanek Winner
2012 US Open Radek Stepanek Runner-Up
2013 US Open Radek Stepanek Winner


His mixed doubles title are 17 in number. They are as follows:-
Year Championship Partner Outcome
1999 Wimbledon Lisa Raymond Winner
2001 US Open Lisa Raymond Runner-Up
2003 Australian Open Martina Navratilova Winner
2003 Wimbledon Martina Navratilova Winner
2004 Australian Open Martina Navratilova Runner-Up
2005 French Open Martina Navratilova Runner-Up
2007 US Open Meghann Shaughnessy Runner-Up
2008 US Open Cara Black Winner
2009 Wimbledon Cara Black Runner-Up
2009 US Open Cara Black Runner-Up
2010 Australian Open Cara Black Winner
2010 Wimbledon Cara Black Winner
2012 Australian Open Elena Vesnina Runner-Up
2012 Wimbledon Elena Vesnina Runner-Up
2015 Australian Open Martina Hingis Winner
2015 Wimbledon Martina Hingis Winner
2015 US Open Martina Hingis Winner


Leander Paes, Indian Tennis PlayerPaes" Davis Cup Career
In the year 1991 Paes played his first Davis Cup match partnering Zeeshan Ali in a doubles match against the Japanese team in a match that went on to have five sets. He is considered one of the top Davis cup players for his country, with a record of 89-32 overall, as of July 2015. 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. 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, Nicolas Massu and Marcelo Rios of Chile in 1997, Broad and Tim Henman in 1998, and Simon Aspelin and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden in 2005. In 2007, Leander has three wins (two doubles and one singles) and no losses in the Davis Cup.

Leander Paes, Indian Tennis PlayerPaes and Mahesh Bhupati
Both Paes and Bhupati when paired was called the "Indian express" by many. Their relationship was very strong for few years but they detached themselves from playing with each other later. But in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, they decided to play together for their country, and lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champions Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.


In 2011, the "Indian Express" pair won the doubles title at Chennai Open. They reunited to play in a Grand Slam Tournament after nine years and claimed runners-up in the 2011 Australian Open and reached the semifinals in the year-end championships. The Indian duo has a 303-103 career record together. They have a higher success rate against various top teams. They have a Davis Cup record of longest winning streak in doubles, with 23 straight wins.

The Davis Cup record of Paes and Bhupati are as follows:
Year Opponents
1995 Sasa Hirszon / Goran Ivanisevic
1996 Jacco Eltingh / Paul Haarhuis
1996 Jonas Bjorkman / Nicklas Kulti
1997 Martin Damm/ Petr Korda
1997 Nicola Massu/ Marcelo Rios
1998 Neil Broad/ Tim Henman
1999 Dong-Hyun Kim / Hyung-Taik Lee
1999 Shan Jiang / Zhu Benqiang
2001 Ran Xu / Jing-Zhu Yang
2001 Thomas Shimada/ Takao Suzuki
2001 Donald Johnson/ Jared Palmer
2002 Patrick Chucri / Ali Hamadeh
2002 James Shortall / Daniel Willman
2003 Jun Kato / Thomas Shimada
2003 Alistair Hunt / Mark Nielsen
2004 Mark Nielsen / Matthew Prentice
2004 Thomas Shimada/ Takahiro Terachi
2005 Yu Jr. Wang / Zhu Benqiang
2005 Murad Inoyatov / Denis Istomin
2005 Simon Aspelin / Jonas Bjorkman
2006 Woong-Sun Jun / Oh-Hee Kwon
2006 Jalil Khan / Asim Shafik
2008 Satoshi Iwabuchi / Takao Suzuki
2008 Adrian Cruciat / Horia Tecau
2009 Tsung-Hua Yang / Chu-Huan Yi
2010 Teymuraz Gabashvili / Igor Kunitsyn
2010 Marcelo Melo / Bruno Soares


Acting Career of Leander Paes
Leander made his film debut in Ashok Kohli`s Rajdhani Express, a socio-political thriller. He represents a character named Keshav. The film aspires to raise grave questions about the current scenario of our society at large and immoral tendencies of people but all of that gets overshadowed by poor editing, over-the-top performances, pointless scenes and illogical dialogues. He tries his best to fit into the role he gets to portray but given his image and body language it doesn`t work for him. Actor Amitosh Nagpal has dubbed for Paes as Hindi is not his forte.




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