Know Your Sports Star | Leander Paes | India At Olympics
Know Your Sports Star | Leander Paes | India At Olympics
Lets Start with some quick facts -
- He has won Bronze medal for India in 1996 Olympics
- 54 Men's Doubles titles in his career and 8 out of those are Grand Slam titles
- 10 Mixed doubles Grand Slam titles
- Partnered with more than 125 tennis players in doubles and mixed doubles category
- World no 1 junior champion in Mens' singles
His name is Leander Paes, living legend of Indian Tennis. Leander is Calcuttan, born to Dr Vace Paes - the hockey player from Bronze medal winning Indian Hockey Team. He completed his training in Chennai and rose to fame as No 1 tennis player in singles junior category in 1990 after winning Wimbledon title.
Leander has played in singles in his early career but received less success in the format. Few highlights of his achievements from singles category are winning the only ATP title of his life and a win against all time greats Pete Sampras by 6-3, 6-4.
He started playing in Doubles pairing with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi, even though their first year couldn't get much results, pair started getting better there onwards. Pair had won many titles in doubles including 2 Grand Slams of Wimbledon and French Open and were runner ups in US Open, Australian Open.
In Mixed Doubles Peas has won 8 Grand slams, 4 of them were with Martina Hingis and 2 each with Martina Navratilova, Cara Black.
Leander is one of most important sport personality for India not just because he won bronze for India, but because he is the one who broke the Olympics individual medal jinx of India after 44 years.
Best matches of his career were played in Olympics of 1996 in Atlanta. He defeated top ranking tennis players to reach semi-final against almighty Andre Agassi. In that match, Leander had jumped through corners and ran to the net, making Agassi wonder, not a single clean shot from this guy but he is still winning the games. Leander lost that match by 6-7, 3-6. For him result was bit harsh, not because he had lost, but because he was so close to win in first set, a win here would have got 1st individual Olympics Silver medal for India in 44 years.
Yes, for consecutive 44 years, India didn't win a single individual Olympics medal, last one was in 1952 when K. S. Jadhav won Bronze in wrestling in Helsinki Olympics. Since then India was waiting for next medal, had come to a situation where people started thinking, you need to be of different mould completely to win individual medal in Olympics, something which India even stopped believing that they can have one.
All hopes were still not lost after the loss to Agassi, it was clear for Indians that they can win Bronze here and Leander is their man! For a 24-years old man who was very happy with just a maiden entry into the Olympics, everything changed! In fact, He and his friend Mahesh Bhupathi had made pact to wear diamond stud in ear just for that entry and now here he was with completely changed scenario. Every Indian around him started talking about 44 years of wait, raising their own expectations to win the medal and telling him, no matter what, he has to do it. Facing press conference a night before the match, when asked about the feeling for tomorrow, Leander replied "it's just another match" with a poker face.
No one asked him about his right hand wrist which got injured while playing a two handed powerful stroke from Agassi, and they just talked about "44 years". All the happiness and fun with which he had entered the tournament had gone and all that was resting on his shoulders now- was the mountain of expectations from his countrymen. News bulletins and newspapers from all over India had raised the expectations of citizens, announcing Leander was going to deliver it.
That night Leander could not sleep, thinking only about the medal next day, it was as if a do or die situation for him. Pressure couldn't let him sleep, raising anxiety more than confident the next morning. He could not concentrate on his daily routine for trainings before match and had reached tennis court unprepared. In locker room, he thought his was away from everyone's eyes but his physician came in just before the match and said "Leander, you are the one who can do it, please get us the medal". He sat there alone, Mahesh Bhupathi told him to go out and play his natural game, Leander replied 'I have to win, I am too close'. Leander had gotten emotional, thinking only about the medal and not the game.
Match against Fernando had started and opposite to everyones' expectations, Leander started playing the worst game of his in years, he was making errors giving points to Fernando, eventually loosing 1st set 3-6. Just before the 2nd set, it started raining, which delayed the match. After the first set, Indians had almost lost the hope, realizing now that the injured wrist of his, might be playing its part in the game.
When everybody was loosing hope, Leander was thinking, thinking for the first time since yesterday, thinking how he got here, how he beat world's top players, how hard he trained himself and how he almost made Agassi to realize that he was loosing the game. That rain had given him much needed break from everything else in the world to think - how to play and win the game.
Rain stopped, Leander entered the court, uniting all power in his body, forgetting pain in his wrist and thinking only about the game and not win. After that, he played like never before, winning next 2 sets by 6-2, 6-4. Whole crowd erupted with joy! Leander had done the impossible. Leander had given Indians the win, they had stopped believing in. It wasn't only Leander, whole India had won that match against that disbelief. Something which was mirage before was in their hands now.
Leander cried in locker room, assuring himself of his very own win! Standing on podium with other 2 winners, holding tricolors in his hands, wearing bronze medal, Leander had given one of the proudest day to the Indians in 44 years!!
When asked about how he won the match today in conference, Leander said - "Guts, guts won me the match"
Since then, India has won at least 1 individual medal in every Olympics!!
That was the day when Leander had made India proud and today is the day, India had made Leander her pride, awarding him, Arjuna award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Bhushan Award!
This is Rajneekant and I will meet you again with another story of another Indian sports star, till then Good Bye, Shubh Ratri, Shabba Khair.
Leander is one of most important sport personality for India not just because he won bronze for India, but because he is the one who broke the Olympics individual medal jinx of India after 44 years.
Best matches of his career were played in Olympics of 1996 in Atlanta. He defeated top ranking tennis players to reach semi-final against almighty Andre Agassi. In that match, Leander had jumped through corners and ran to the net, making Agassi wonder, not a single clean shot from this guy but he is still winning the games. Leander lost that match by 6-7, 3-6. For him result was bit harsh, not because he had lost, but because he was so close to win in first set, a win here would have got 1st individual Olympics Silver medal for India in 44 years.
Yes, for consecutive 44 years, India didn't win a single individual Olympics medal, last one was in 1952 when K. S. Jadhav won Bronze in wrestling in Helsinki Olympics. Since then India was waiting for next medal, had come to a situation where people started thinking, you need to be of different mould completely to win individual medal in Olympics, something which India even stopped believing that they can have one.
All hopes were still not lost after the loss to Agassi, it was clear for Indians that they can win Bronze here and Leander is their man! For a 24-years old man who was very happy with just a maiden entry into the Olympics, everything changed! In fact, He and his friend Mahesh Bhupathi had made pact to wear diamond stud in ear just for that entry and now here he was with completely changed scenario. Every Indian around him started talking about 44 years of wait, raising their own expectations to win the medal and telling him, no matter what, he has to do it. Facing press conference a night before the match, when asked about the feeling for tomorrow, Leander replied "it's just another match" with a poker face.
No one asked him about his right hand wrist which got injured while playing a two handed powerful stroke from Agassi, and they just talked about "44 years". All the happiness and fun with which he had entered the tournament had gone and all that was resting on his shoulders now- was the mountain of expectations from his countrymen. News bulletins and newspapers from all over India had raised the expectations of citizens, announcing Leander was going to deliver it.
That night Leander could not sleep, thinking only about the medal next day, it was as if a do or die situation for him. Pressure couldn't let him sleep, raising anxiety more than confident the next morning. He could not concentrate on his daily routine for trainings before match and had reached tennis court unprepared. In locker room, he thought his was away from everyone's eyes but his physician came in just before the match and said "Leander, you are the one who can do it, please get us the medal". He sat there alone, Mahesh Bhupathi told him to go out and play his natural game, Leander replied 'I have to win, I am too close'. Leander had gotten emotional, thinking only about the medal and not the game.
Match against Fernando had started and opposite to everyones' expectations, Leander started playing the worst game of his in years, he was making errors giving points to Fernando, eventually loosing 1st set 3-6. Just before the 2nd set, it started raining, which delayed the match. After the first set, Indians had almost lost the hope, realizing now that the injured wrist of his, might be playing its part in the game.
When everybody was loosing hope, Leander was thinking, thinking for the first time since yesterday, thinking how he got here, how he beat world's top players, how hard he trained himself and how he almost made Agassi to realize that he was loosing the game. That rain had given him much needed break from everything else in the world to think - how to play and win the game.
Rain stopped, Leander entered the court, uniting all power in his body, forgetting pain in his wrist and thinking only about the game and not win. After that, he played like never before, winning next 2 sets by 6-2, 6-4. Whole crowd erupted with joy! Leander had done the impossible. Leander had given Indians the win, they had stopped believing in. It wasn't only Leander, whole India had won that match against that disbelief. Something which was mirage before was in their hands now.
Leander cried in locker room, assuring himself of his very own win! Standing on podium with other 2 winners, holding tricolors in his hands, wearing bronze medal, Leander had given one of the proudest day to the Indians in 44 years!!
When asked about how he won the match today in conference, Leander said - "Guts, guts won me the match"
Since then, India has won at least 1 individual medal in every Olympics!!
That was the day when Leander had made India proud and today is the day, India had made Leander her pride, awarding him, Arjuna award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Bhushan Award!
This is Rajneekant and I will meet you again with another story of another Indian sports star, till then Good Bye, Shubh Ratri, Shabba Khair.
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