Leander Paes

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Image:Olympic-rings.png
Bronze medal	Tennis Men's singles

Leander Adrian Paes (born June 17, 1973) is currently one of the most successful players of the tennis Men's Doubles and Mixed Doubles circuits.

Leander Paes was born in Goa and brought up in Kolkata (then Calcutta). His mother, Jennifer Paes was a renowned basketball player and captain of the Indian team in the 1980 Asian Basketball Championships. His father, Vece Paes, was a hockey midfielder representing the Indian team in the 1972 Munich Olympics that won the bronze medal.

He joined the Britannia Tennis Academy in Madras (now known as Chennai) in 1985 where he was coached by Dave O'Meara. Leander shot into international fame when he won the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and rose to No.1 in the junior world-rankings.

He turned professional in 1991 and in 1996 won a bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics becoming the first Indian in more than 4 decades to win an individual medal. The previous individual medalist for India was K.D. Jadhav who won a bronze in 1952.

Specialising in Doubles, he was ranked number 1 along with Mahesh Bhupathi.

He was a joint winner of India's highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in the year 1996-1997 along with Nameirakpam Kunjarani. In 2001, he was awarded the Padma Shri.

1 Grand Slam titles
2 Grand Slam record
3 Career highlights
4 External links

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Grand Slam titles

MEN'S DOUBLES
   Year Championship        Partner
   1999 French Open         Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)
   1999 Wimbledon           Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)
   2001 French Open         Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)

MIXED DOUBLES
   Year Championship        Partner
   1999 Wimbledon           Lisa Raymond (USA)
   2003 Australian Open     Martina Navratilova (USA)
   2003 Wimbledon           Martina Navratilova (USA)

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Grand Slam record

Australian Open

Doubles finalist: 1999 (w/Bhupathi), 2006 (w/Damm)
Doubles semi-finalist: 1998
Mixed Doubles champion: 2003 (w/Navratilova)

French Open

Doubles champion: 1999 (w/Bhupathi), 2001 (w/Bhupathi)
Doubles semi-finalist: 1998

Wimbledon

Doubles champion: 1999 (w/Bhupathi)
Mixed Doubles champion: 1999 (w/Raymond), 2003 (w/Navratilova)

U.S. Open

Doubles finalist: 1999 (w/Bhupathi)
Doubles semi-finalist: 1997

[edit]

Career highlights

1990 - Wimbledon Boys title
1992 - Barcelona Olympics, reached quarter-finals of the doubles competition
1993 - Davis Cup, reached semi-finals
1996 - Atlanta Olympics, singles bronze-medallist
1997 - US Open doubles, reached semi-finals
1998 - reached doubles semi-finals of Australian, French and US Open
1999 - reached doubles finals of all the four Grand Slams partnering Mahesh Bhupathi, the first time such a feat has been achieved in the Open era and the first time since 1952, eventually winning at Wimbledon and French Open.
Mixed doubles title at Wimbledon
2001 - French Open doubles title
2003 - Wimbledon and Australian Open mixed-doubles title along with Martina Navratilova
2004 - reached the semi-finals of the double competition at the Athens Olympics and finals of US Open doubles
2006 - reached Australain Open men's doubles final together with Czech Martin Damm. They lost to Americans Bob and Mike Bryan.