The Australian Open men’s doubles champion and the only Indian to win a career Grand Slam, talks about his journey in tennis, the Czech connection and his plans for the Olympics.
Leander Paes, Australian Open men’s doubles champion and the only Indian to win a career Grand Slam, talks about his journey in tennis, the Czech connection and his plans for the Olympics. Mihir Vasavda is all ears.
Your trophy cabinet is complete now...
(Points towards all four Grand Slam trophies that are kept diagonally opposite him) They are sitting there and every time I look at them and they speak of 30 years of hard work and perseverance. The euphoria of winning a grand slam or an Olympic medal lasts for 24 hours. But the journey to get there takes a lifetime. So I have always enjoyed the journey.
Two finals, two days. Did you expect that going into the tournament?
I go into every Grand Slam aiming for that. I had a tough outing at the US Open last year where I injured myself very badly during a match. I had to pull out in the semifinals of the mixed and I lost in the quarters of the men’s doubles. I trained really hard in October, November and December to get fit again and it has worked out well. In three weeks, I won two tournaments and reached the quarterfinals of the other.
You’ve been targeting the Australian Open title for a long time. What was the thing that you did differently this time?
I can’t let out all my secrets (laughs). But one of the big reasons is finding a great partner. One of the great gifts I have is I choose great partners. Radek (Stepanek) is very hard working player. We had to brush up his tennis skills and he did that in 21 days. We beat the number 1, 2 and 3 pairs in one week and that’s quite amazing, I feel.
Were you surprised the way final against Bryan brothers went?
No. We had played them a week before in Sydney, which was really important because I needed Radek to know how to play against them. And we lost 7-6 7-6; a tight match. In fact, it turned on one point we lost a serve at 5-5 in second set tiebreak. That changed the match. We made sure that point was the blue print for how we played them.
Is there anything specific you see when you pick a partner for doubles?
This morning, we were doing a small bit of research work because Wikipedia says I have had 87 partners in my career, which is wrong. Some other people said it was 19, which is again wrong. So far I have counted 32 partners in men’s doubles alone and I haven’t finished yet. I have won four doubles Grand Slams with Czech partners. I love playing with them because they are hard working people with a very dry sense of humour and I love that. I think that combination is a lot of fun.
The day you won the title, Indian cricket team suffered a whitewash. Were you watching those matches?
I always watch cricket and I think all of us need to cut them a little slack. Less than a year ago, they won us the World Cup. We all have tough matches; I have had plenty of them. But it’s not fair to compare people from different sports. You know, people are talking about the age factor involved in Sachin, Laxman and Dravid’s performance. But I choose to respect people who work hard and have done nice things in life. So, I respect them a lot.
While Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman are at the receiving end, you have defied age and completed career slam at 38.
Age is about how you feel. It actually speaks about your lifestyle.
If you have a bad lifestyle, bad habits, then you age fast. The important thing is to stay healthy. I look up to Martina (Navratilova). I won a Grand Slam with her when she was 49 or 50 (2003 Wimbledon 2003). It’s about your lifestyle and state of being.
How big an inspiration has Martina been in your career?
She has played a huge role, she is phenomenal. More than being the legend that she is as an athlete, she is one of my closest friends, one of my confidantes. We both are students of life, of our profession and, as I said, age becomes a number to both of us.
Talking about the affairs here, a lot has been spoken about the pairing for the Olympics. What’s your view on that?
Selection is something that I really don’t get into. That is there for the All India Tennis Association to look after and I am sure they will do a great job with it.
Would it be natural to expect a medal at Olympics, though?
For me, at this stage, it’s all about choosing new targets and what I want to achieve. So yes, the next target is Olympics. I will be very specific in choosing the tournaments in the run up to the Games. It will also be important to stay injury free. But I am playing great tennis at the moment, so I am not worried at all.
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