Leander, louder than words

There was a time when covering tennis full-time almost made me cringe because of frequent interactions with Leander Paes.

There was a time when covering tennis full-time almost made me cringe because of frequent interactions with Leander Paes. Insisting week after week that he always wore his heart on his sleeve, that he was willing to bleed and die for India, you almost got a sense that he was taking great pains to prove how his brand of patriotism was superior to anyone else8217;s.

But sitting courtside, watching him play rather than listening to him talk, was like a balm that made the job worthwhile. While his words may have sounded like lip service, he somehow lived up to his melodramatic claims by conquering players much higher in ranking, tennis pedigree and natural talent. What does Leander have that makes him so special, I often asked myself back then. After all, he is short, he has a pedestrian first serve, and his backhand is non-existent 8212; a choppy push rather than a full swing. The secret ingredients behind Leander8217;s success came to me in a sudden flash, nine years ago, during an ATP circuit Challenger final in Delhi against his doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi: Two legs, one volley and one heart.

Over the years, I8217;ve used that line freely in conversations about Leander. It8217;s my big finish when talking about him, and amazingly, it has always impressed my audience and hasn8217;t yet been contradicted.

But the more you think about Leander 8212; which, let8217;s be honest, doesn8217;t happen too often these days with tennis slowly falling off the radar because of our long hiatus from the Davis Cup8217;s world group 8212; you wonder if what he8217;s brought to world tennis can be summed up with that simple, even if brilliant, analysis.

As he won the mixed doubles title at the US Open at the ripe old age of 35, you could8217;ve used a number of arguments against the motion to play down his success. The speech could start with how no one cares about mixed doubles, citing examples of Martina Navratilova with Leander as partner, mind you winning titles a decade after she quit playing singles. It could go on to highlighting how men8217;s doubles, too, is slowly losing relevance with the days of McEnroe and Fleming long gone. And, in conclusion, it could dwell on how Leander has never fulfilled his singles potential on the big, bad ATP Tour with a career-high ranking of 78, and that too very briefly, 10 years ago.

There is some truth in those arguments, but the debate to diminish Leander8217;s achievements would still be lost. While Indian sports historians talk nostalgically of Ramanathan Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj and Ramesh Krishnan 8212; refusing to give Leander and Mahesh the same status because of their inferior singles records 8212; they have no response to the bottom-line that, no matter how well the Amritrajs and Krishnans may have done, no Indian had ever won a senior Grand Slam title of any kind until 1997.

Leander8217;s partner Mahesh broke the shackles when he and Japan8217;s Rika Hiraki won the French Open mixed doubles title 11 years ago, and almost every year since then, tennis8217;s annual Grand Slam roll of honour has had an Indian flavour in some form. Mahesh is now a 10-time Grand Slam champion and Leander an eight-time winner after failing in his bid for a rare double in Flushing Meadow when he and Lukas Dlouhy lost the men8217;s doubles final on Friday.

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Between the two, Leander8217;s aura is naturally greater. Not just because of his Olympics bronze medal from Atlanta and his solitary singles title at Newport, but also because he was solely responsible for bringing excitement back into Indian tennis with his lunging, diving volleys at a time when all seemed lost. He was India8217;s humble version of Becker 8212; without the booming serve but with the same athleticism and the emotional intensity on court.

What8217;s wondrous is that Leander is still going strong 8212; 18 years after starting his Davis Cup career, 17 years after turning pro, and nine years after reaching the doubles final in all the four Grand Slams.

He8217;s hardly changed despite the ravages of time, his tumultuous relationship with Mahesh, and even a brain lesion that almost threatened to end his career. So what if you still roll your eyes when he talks.