Happy Birthday Leander Paes: Firsts by India's evergreen tennis champion
Paes is India's first and only Olympic medal winner in tennis to date...
Leander Paes turns 48 on Thursday and the tennis superstar is still going strong.
His success stories over the past three decades remain unparalleled. He is hailed as one of the best doubles players in the world and has won 18 Grand Slams in his career; eight in men's doubles and another 10 in mixed doubles.
Paes hails from Kolkata and debuted on the pro-circuit in 1991. Before that, in 1990, he won both the junior US Open and Wimbledon titles. He also grabbed the top spot in junior rankings for his superlative performances in the same year.
Paes shocked the tennis world when he beat Pete Sampras in straight sets (6-3, 6-4) at the Pilot Pen International Tennis Championships in 1998, New Haven.
His partnership with Mahesh Bhupathi will be cherished for years to come as the duo rose to no.1 in 1999. That year they reached the finals of all four grand slams and went on to win Wimbledon and French Open.
On the occasion of his 48th birthday, we look at some of the firsts he achieved for the country:
First Olympic medal in Tennis
Paes became the first Indian to win an Olympic medal in the sport at Atlanta 1996. He defeated Fernando Meligeni of Brazil 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, to win the bronze medal in men's singles.
“For 1.4 billion people, when you go out there to play the Olympics, it’s a different feeling altogether," Paes said to the Olympics.com as he remembered his Atlanta 1996 journey.
He was drawn against Pete Sampras, but fortune favoured as one of the greatest tennis players withdrew from the tournament and was replaced by Richey Reneberg.
After losing the first set to Reneberg, Paes turned it around and win in three sets. He went on a rampage then and won eight straight sets, beating the likes of Nicola Pereira, Thomas Enqvist and Renzo Furlan, to reach the semi-finals to face Andre Agassi. The American turned out to be too good for him and he lost 7-6, 6-3.
However, Paes outlasted Meligeni in the bronze-medal match despite suffering from an injury.
It was also India's first individual Olympic medal in 44 years, with KD Jadhav's bronze medal in wrestling at Helsinki 1952 being the last one before Paes.
First Player to appear in seven Olympics
Paes competed in seven consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016. He is the first Indian and the first tennis player to compete at seven Olympics.
Out of his seven appearances at the Games, he was in medal contention on two occasions. In 1996, when he emerged victorious in the third-place match to win bronze, and in 2004 Athens Olympics when he and Mahesh Bhupati finished fourth in men's doubles after losing to Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic.
The World Olympians Association honoured him with a certificate for participating in seven Olympics.
First Indian to complete career slam in men's doubles and mixed doubles
Paes became the first Indian to complete his career slam in 2012 when he partnered Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek to win the Australian Open. The pair was in terrific form in the competition as they beat a host of heavyweights including the legendary Bob and Mike Bryan in the final.
"It's taken 20 years to get there," Paes told Hindustan Times.
He first won a men's doubles Grand Slam title in 1999 at the French Open while partnering Mahesh Bhupathi. Thereafter, he followed it up with a win at the Wimbledon (again partnering Bhupathi) in the same year. His first US Open win came in 2006, in the company of Martin Damm.
In mixed doubles, his first Grand Slam title was at the Wimbledon in 1999 along with Lisa Raymond. He clinched the Australian Open four years later (with Martina Navratilova) and it took another five years to win the US Open in 2008 with Cara Black. Paes then completed the career slam in mixed doubles as well in 2016, lifting the French Open title with Martina Hingis.