Leander Paes talks to Harish Kotian/Rediff.com about his recent Australian Open mixed doubles triumph and the special bond he shares with his former Grand Slam-winning partner, Martina Navratilova.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi revived their ATP World Tour finals campaign with a straight- set victory over Jurgen Melzer and Philip Petzschner in a group A round-robin match, in London, on Wednesday.
World No 1 Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Barbara Strycova were ousted from the women's doubles event after losing to top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets in the quarter-final of the US Open, in New York.
Indian tennis star Somdev Devvarman climbed six places in the latest ATP rankings to touch a career-best 62nd position in the singles list.
Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna has risen to a career-best ninth in the ATP doubles rankings after the title triumph at the Gerry Weber Open in Germany.
Some Indian television channels, it appears, would go to any length to ensure they have an attentive audience.
The Indian tennis contingent arrived in Doha for the Asian Games minus Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.
Third seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi got the better of Spain's Marc Lopez and David Marrero to advance to the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson ATP Masters Open in Miami on Wednesday. The 'Indian Express' won the second round match against their unseeded opponents 7-6(5), 6-4.
Former Davis Cupper Jaideep Mukherjea was appointed president of the newly-formed Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) while Leander Paes was surprisingly named as one of three vice presidents.
Canadian tennis star Frank Dancevic, who along with Stanislas Wawrinka will face star Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi at the Chennai Open, knows that their opening match is a tough one but promised a good fight against the crowd favourites on Monday.
Yuki Bhambri, the country's No 1 singles player, will open India's Davis Cup campaign when he takes on world No 85 Lukas Rosol in the first singles of the World Group play-off match against the Czech Republic, in Delhi, on Friday. The second singles will be played between Somdev Devvarman and Czech No 1 Jiri Vesley.
Divij Sharan and Purav Raja will make their first ever appearance at a Grand Slam as the Indian duo qualified for the Wimbledon men's doubles event.
We should all bow before the legend that is Leander, says Rahul Jacob.
The sixth seeds beat Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 6-3, 6-4 in their second round match at the Masters Series. Leander Paes and his Australian partner Paul Hanley, seeded eighth, will take on Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in the quarter-final on Tuesday.
Indian tennis legend Leander Paes has backed the IOA's decision to appoint Sushil Kumar as the country's flag-bearer at the London Olympics opening ceremony, saying that the Beijing bronze-medallist wrestler deserves the honour.
Indian Davis Cup faction revolting against the captaincy of Leander Paes have relented for the time-being, making themselves available for the tie against Japan, which will be held from April 11 in New Delhi.
Indian ace Leander Paes says the tennis legend rekindled his passion for the game.
India's Davis Cup legend Leander Paes made it clear that he opted to play World Team Tennis during India's last tie against New Zealand in order to give youngsters a chance to prepare for the bigger battles ahead of them.
India will now face world number two Croatia for the Qualifiers in an away tie
Ending days of speculation, the Indian Olympic Association on Sunday announced that wrestler Sushil Kumar, a bronze medallist at the Beijing Games, will be the flag bearer of the Indian contingent at the upcoming London Olympics.
India's non-playing Davis Cup captain Rohit Rajpal on Saturday clarified that his "shut-up" remark was meant for a few "agenda-driven" people consistently targeting him and was not directed at the country's tennis community as has been projected.
His 11th Grand Slam title has only whetted Leander Paes' appetite for success and the Indian ace on Sunday said he remains a "student of tennis" who draws inspiration from Roger Federer and strives for perfection.
India's Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig rallied from a set down to enter the French Open mixed-doubles quarter-finals at Roland Garros on Wednesday.
Leander Paes got the better of compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in a thrilling mixed doubles encounter to enter the third round at the Australian Open, in Melbourne, on Monday. He and Daniela Hantuchova beat eighth seeds Bhupathi and Elena Vesnina 6-0, 2-6, 10-6.
Third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes staged a brilliant comeback to shock top seeds and defending champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan and reach the final of the Western and Southern Open.
The Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the men's doubles at the London Olympics, losing 3-6, 4-6 to the French pair of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet, on Tuesday.
Bopanna also spoke about the challenging conditions at the Australian Open and having to push his boundaries to get them wins.
India have a good chance of winning medals in both, men's doubles and mixed doubles events at next year's Rio Olympics, feels former player Mahesh Bhupathi.
Indian Challenge ended at the Madrid Open with the straight set defeat of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna at the hands of unseeded team of Jeremy Chardy and Lukas Kubot in Madrid.
Indian sportspersons will be in action in the following events at 28th Olympic Games in Athens.\n\n
Meanwhile, Akhtar Ali, a member of AITA's selection committee, said the matter would be sorted out after discussions with the players.
Bopanna and Ebden won 7-6(0), 7-5 in the final that lasted one hour and 39 minutes.
India's Sania Mirza put herself in contention for a seventh Grand Slam title as she breezed into the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Ivan Dodig, beating local favourites Samantha Stosur and Sam Groth in Melbourne on Friday.
The Indian contingent's schedule in the Rio Olympics for Saturday.
The year, which started offering dual hope for Indian tennis fans, ended up serving double disappointment instead.
Ramkumar, who ended a runner-up at the Newport event last week, lost 4-6, 4-6 to American Taylor Fritz.
Amid rising speculation on who is going to partner Sania Mirza at the Rio Olympics, contender Rohan Bopanna says his sole focus now is to maintain his top-10 ranking till the French Open in June. While veteran Leander Paes has already said that he is the ideal partner for Sania, Bopanna said a lot of scenarios can play out before the Rio Games in August. "I will play all the big tournaments there are on the calendar before Rio, starting from Dubai to Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Rome, French Open. The aim is to be in the top-10 till the French Open and we will see who can partner who, be it doubles or mixed doubles. So there is a long way to go before Rio," Bopanna told PTI on Friday.
The fifth seeds were shocked by Germany's unseeded pair of Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-3 in the semi-finals.
The last time an Indian made it to the final in a Challenger abroad was in 1998 when Paes won the title in Bangkok.
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