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Journalism of Courage
Leander Paes won the Australian Open and the Wimbledon with Martina Navratilova in 2003,and reached two other Slam finals in the following years,when teaming up with the legend. He also picked some priceless secrets of longevity while playing alongside Navratilova.
I first met Leander while playing against him and I noticed he had this spark about his game. And I thought we will make a good team and when we eventually decided to play with each other,we had a great partnership. That was more so because we are both very emotionally intense tennis players and our partnership was based on instinct,always instinctive. We both knew what to do and its great to have a partner when you know what your partner will do and how he will react before he actually does it. So we always found each other in the right spots on the court. That was a great thing.
Off the court as well,he was a very positive person,he always had a smile on his face. He said a lot of inspiring things to me he would leave little notes in my racquet bags and they always had something sweet,something inspiring to say. We used to go out on a lot of dinners together and it was fun speaking to him,hanging out with him.
In a way we both inspired each other. He was always very intrigued by how I was playing and doing well at that age so I think that influenced and affected him I think it was about seeing that if somebody else can do it,I can do it too. I probably made him realise the importance of tennis in our lives that way that even at this age would we rather do anything else than play tennis? And if no,then we have to overcome that (age,pain barriers) to do what we want to do. And I am very happy for him that he is still doing that competing in Grand Slams and winning them,like he did this year at Melbourne.
(As told to Smriti Sinha)
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