Leander Paes’ nomination into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) in the player category comes as a validation of his work as a tennis professional over nearly 30 years.
As an Indian tennis player, in a country with a storied tennis legacy, Paes’ induction would come as a testament to his achievements, which include 18 doubles or mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. The now retired 50-year-old, if inducted, would become the first Asian male to make it into the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport, Rhode Island, the place where he ironically won his only Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour singles title in 1998.
7 Olympics, 1 medal
While one aspect of his career is his longevity—Leander Paes played in seven Olympic Games—it was aided by his natural athleticism, speed and abilities close to the net. He accumulated enough trophies to be counted among India’s greatest ever tennis players. His bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, at that time a rare individual medal at the quadrennial event and the only one in tennis so far, gave wheels to the sport in the country.
There were other great singles players before him, most notably Ramanathan Krishnan, who made it to the Wimbledon semifinals twice and was ranked in the top 10. His son Ramesh Krishnan achieved a career-high ranking of 23 in the 1980s. Vijay Amritraj, who has also been nominated but in the ITHF contributory category, was a Davis Cup hero, a two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist and a former top-20 ranked player whose (now defunct) Britannia Amritraj Tennis (BAT) Academy first nurtured a young Paes.
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Doubles partnerships
But where Paes scored over the others was in winning the majors—albeit in doubles and mixed doubles. In a highly successful partnership with Mahesh Bhupathi starting with the breakthrough years of 1997-98 when they together won six titles each year, they clinched titles at Wimbledon and Roland Garros in 1999. Their success—before a public fallout nipped in the bud a potentially lucrative combination—spurred a doubles revolution in the country that had Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna as worthy successors.
In international tennis, doubles is considered secondary, a side event that’s held along with the more popular singles events. In most tennis playing countries, doubles players are not widely celebrated, though there are some exceptions like the Bryan (Bob and Mike) brothers of the US.
But Paes and Bhupathi, conveniently called “The Indian Express” then, hit high notes from the late-1990s which endeared them to the public and the media. Both went on to have successful careers with multiple partners—Paes’ eight doubles majors came with four partners while in mixed doubles, he formed conversation-starting partnerships with Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis. Besides, he had a title at Wimbledon over three decades, doubles and mixed doubles in 1999, mixed doubles in 2003 (with Navratilova), 2010 and 2015 (with Hingis).
Hall of fame
Paes, who last played professionally in a Davis Cup match against Croatia in early 2020, is one of six candidates announced on Tuesday for nomination into the Class of 2024, with Cara Black, Ana Ivanovic, Carlos Moya, Daniel Nestor and Flavia Pennetta. While Moya, Pennetta and Ivanovic have one singles Grand Slam title each, none of the others have as many doubles-mixed doubles titles as Paes. He was also world No. 1 (in doubles) for 37 weeks and in the top 10 for 462 weeks, a rare achievement.
Part of the ITHF selection process will be done through online voting by fans that ends October 9, which acts as a bonus for the nominee. To be chosen, a candidate should get a positive vote of 75 percent or more from the official voting group.
No Asian male player (China’s Li Na is the only Asian in the Hall of Fame so far) has been inducted into the ITHF before, which improves Paes’ chances. He said that a number of voters and nominees, including Nestor and Black, are his former doubles partners or contemporaries.
“It’s not just about winning a Grand Slam,” said Paes on Friday. “All nominees have won Grand Slams. Cara is one of the greatest doubles players you will ever see. My vote would be for everyone who has been nominated.”
He said that during the course of his career, he has managed his expectations, which he will do with the nomination as well. “I have had more downs than ups in my career. I lost 74.3 percent of matches in my career and in 16 Grand Slam finals, as my father (Dr Vece Paes) and daughter (Aiyana) keep reminding me. So I have learnt to make light of things, of losses.”
Paes’ farewell tour of 2020 got cut short because of the pandemic. By his own admission, he managed to say some sort of a goodbye earlier in the year, at an ATP event in Dubai in February and Pune before that. Once the Indian team returned from playing the Davis Cup in Croatia in the first week of March, the lockdown went into effect.
An inclusion into the hallowed group of the International Tennis Hall of Famers, where he could join former partners Hingis and Navratilova would perhaps fill the void of the farewell tour and allow him to “make India proud” again.
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