11 Sept 2013

Leander Paes turned 40 this June. Less than three months later on Sunday, he won his 14th Grand Slam title, combining with Radek Stepanek to clinch the US Open men’s doubles. The fourth seeded Indo-Czech players dominated their victory over Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares in New York in straight sets making it 6-1 and 6-3 in under one hour and 13 minutes. This was Paes’ and Stepanek’s second major title together after their Australian Open win last year. At 40, Paes has eight men’s doubles Grand Slam titles under his racket and 14 overall. He also set a record of sorts, becoming the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title in the Open era. The feat is testimony to the willpower and character of one of India’s greatest sportsmen. 

And inimitably, Paes said it better than anyone could: "We both come from humble backgrounds and from countries where tennis wasn`t necessarily the number one sport. We both fought against adversity to get to where we are. So age is just a number for us. Age is something that we look at and we smile. We chat with you guys and smile about it, because, you know, you guys tease us about it, which is nice. For us, we really take it very seriously to go out and get better every day and to push each other."

Here in Goa we’d love to claim Leander Paes for our own. Though born in Kolkata, he is after all Goan. His grandmother Marlaque Paes came from Velim, his grandfather, Dr Peter Paes from Assolna. Leander who has inherited his grandmother’s large house in Velim is often here with his family on holiday from their current home base in Mumbai. Like hundreds of Goan Catholic families from the AVC (Assolna, Velim, Cuncolim) villages, Peter Paes went to work in Africa, serving as a doctor for many years in Arusha, Tanzania, till he returned to live with his son Vece, in Kolkata.

But Goa—and India—with its abysmal infrastructure and shameful bureaucratic corruption in sport management, can hardly lay any claim to Paes’ astonishing rise in the international tennis circuit. The credit rests entirely on the shoulders of a tennis player of unique calibre and fibre, who has done India proud, again and again, both individually and in the Davis Cup. In an age when only cricket dominates our TV screens, when big money overtakes the spin on the pitch, when it is difficult to differentiate between true play and match fixing, and when doping has some of our wrestlers and their managers in a tight grip, Paes’ record on the court has shown us the colours of a true champion. 

But the journey to centre court would have hardly been easy. Paes first came to the fore at 18 taking the World No 1 junior rankings after winning the Junior US Open and Wimbledon titles. He gave us something to cheer about in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when he won the bronze, picking up India’s first individual Olympic medal in four decades. It was an inspired performance against the odds and Paes went down to the great Andre Agassi in a tight two-set match.  

One might have imagined that would end as the high point of Paes’ tennis career. Not so. In 1997 he reached the US Open doubles semi-finals and in 1998 he stormed right through to the doubles semi-finals of the Australian, French and US Open. In 1999 he won the doubles and mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon and the doubles at the French Open. In 2001 he was back to clinch the French Open doubles title and in 2003 the Wimbledon and Australian Open mixed-doubles titles with Martina Navratilova. 

 Paes said typically on Sunday, "Radek helped me to get to be the oldest man to ever win a Grand Slam in the Open era. I thank him for that, and we are definitely not done. I'm going after 41 now, 42, and then 43."

As friend Martina Navratilova said to him after his latest victory, “Go for it, Leander”.