Leander Paes – Greatest Indian sports legend

India has been a cricket loving nation for past many years. But we have had some world class achievers in other sports also. Somewhere, cricket has dominated other sports in our country. It has got great support from media and also, people have loved the game with passion. We have won many medals in hockey in Olympics and Asian Games. We also have won the World Cup trophy in that. In last few years, we have done well in sports like tennis, badminton, shooting, chess, boxing, wrestling and billiards. We are also world champions in traditional sports like kabaddi and carom. Yet, India doesn’t have a sporting culture. We Indians are not much physically active and our aptitude is towards education and we choose to have a safer route career. Not many parents in India encourage their wards towards sports. If they encourage also, the ward has to balance between studies and sports. We have many challenges to face before bringing in a sporting culture. Here, I want to talk about one of greatest Indian sports legend Leander Paes, who became a champion despite facing such challenges.

For me, Leander Paes, along with Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Dhyan Chand and Viswanathan Anand comprise the five greatest Indian sports legends in our country. Leander Paes has been a phenomenal world class sportsperson for India. He has been a great ambassador for tennis in the country. He has been one of the greatest men’s doubles and mixed doubles tennis players in world. He has won 13 grand slams tournaments (7 men’s doubles and 6 mixed doubles). Not to forget his achievement in singles; at sixteen, he had won junior singles title in Wimbledon in 1990 and then US Open in 1991. After that, he had been part of Indian team and we saw lot of successes in Davis Cup. He defeated the best players of those times during Davis Cup matches. He did not have enough success in Grand Slams in singles. But he was a completely different player when he played for India in Davis Cup matches. He played like a world class champion, defeating best players of that era. His best achievement was winning Bronze medal for India in Atlanta Olympics in 1996, becoming the first Indian since KD Jadhav to win an individual medal for India in Olympics.

With age, he gradually started to focus more on men’s doubles and mixed doubles. He evolved himself to become one of best world class doubles players. Media has never given proper dues to this champion player. His achievements are no less than Sachin Tendulkar or Saurav Ganguly. He has made India proud with his achievements and is a great model for any sportsperson. He is thirty nine and is still competing hard with the best in the world. He is not the kind of player who possesses powerful aces but he plays beautiful subtle volleys. With Mahesh Bhupathi as his doubles partner, he formed a formidable world class doubles team but they split after winning two grand slams. It was one of saddest moment for Indian sports history. They could have achieved a lot more together. It is sad to read about problems between AITA and Indian tennis players currently. Most of the younger players with Mahesh Bhupathi don’t want to play with Leander Paes. None of current crop of young players match the calibre of Leander Paes in younger days. He was a tiger on the tennis court in Davis cup matches. They need to learn to respect a legend, who has achieved so much in his career. He should be an inspiration for them and can take the Indian tennis forward with his experience. Leander Paes is one of greatest sports legends in our country of all times.