In what would come as a massive blow to India's chances at the Davis Cup, tennis ace Leander Paes pulled out of the US Open mixed doubles semi-finals due to back spasms which also makes him doubtful for the World Group playoff tie against Japan next week.
The Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were knocked out of the US Open after they lost their quarterfinal match to Poland's Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in straight sets.
A day after sports ministry made it clear that athletes who remain unavailable for national duty would not get financial aid from it, top tennis star Leander Paes said his commitment should not be questioned since he has given his all in the last 24 years while playing for India.
Taking exception to top Indian tennis players' reluctance to compete in the recent Asian Games, the Sports Ministry on Wednesday said individual players will be able to avail government grants only if they undertake to be available for India whenever called upon.
India's top tennis players, who had threatened to boycott the Commonwealth Games because of non-payment of dues, on Saturday pledged to represent the country in the mega event after being given a categorical assurance that the vexed issues would be resolved soon.
Multiple Grand Slam winners Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were on Friday named in India's men's squad for the Commonwealth Games.
At the start of 2011 Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi ended a nine-year separation when they teamed up for the Chennai Open and capped a glorious reunion by winning their fifth crown at the tournament.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won their third title of the season and first at Cincinnati after 10 years, following a hard-fought win over Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in the final.
World chess champion Viswanathan Anand joined the Board of Directors of Olympic Gold Quest, which already has all time great Indian sportspersons like Geet Sethi, Prakash Padukone, P T Usha and Leander Paes, to give a boost to Olympic medal hopefuls.
Third seeds Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi and fifth seeds Rohan Bopanna-Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi progressed to the pre-quarter-finals in the ATP Western and Southern Open with contrasting victories, in Cincinnati, on Thursday. Paes-Bhupathi got the better of Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez 6-4, 6-2 in the second round. Bopanna-Qureshi beat the Argentine pair of Juan Ignacio Chela-Juan Monaco 6-3, 5-7, 10-4.
The Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will take on the winner of the match between Serbs Janko Tipsarevic-Viktor Troicki and the Spanish combo of Marc Lopez-Rafael Nadal in the second round of the ATP Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Indian challenge ended at the ATP Rogers Cup as Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi conceded their doubles quarter-final match to top seeds Mike and Bob Bryan due to an injury to the Indian Davis Cupper.
Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi suffered a shock second-round exit at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament after losing to Czech Tomas Berdych and Florian Mayer of Germany 1-6, 6-7 (9) in the men's doubles event.
Sprint legend P T Usha was on Thursday named chairperson of the selection committee for this year's national sports awards, while hockey icon Ashok Kumar was appointed head of the panel to pick the Dronacharya awardees. The 17-member panel to select the winners of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dhyan Chand awards also includes tennis ace Leander Paes and Olympic bronze medallist weightlifter Karnam Malleswari.
Indian tennis star Somdev Devvarman climbed six places in the latest ATP rankings to touch a career-best 62nd position in the singles list.
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna set up a mixed doubles quarter-final clash against each other at the Australian Open after winning their respective matches, in Melbourne.
Leander Paes, partnering Rohan Bopanna, suffered a rare doubles defeat in the Davis Cup as Radek Stepanek and Adam Pavlasek gave Czech Republic a 2-1 lead over India in the World Group play-off tie, in New Delhi, on Saturday.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi gave the Indian fans something to cheer about by advancing to the semi-finals of the Chennai Open on Friday.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won their first round match at the Chennai Open, beating the Canadian-Swiss combine of Frank Dancevic and Stanislas Wawrinka on Monday.
Steve Johnson beat first-time ATP finalist Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island on Sunday for his fourth career title and second of 2018.
Leander Paes and Cara Black bowed out of the Wimbledon mixed doubles event after suffering a straight set defeat in the quarter-finals against Daniel Nestor and Yung-Jan Chan.
Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes today said that the dramatic victory he pulled off along with partner Rohan Bopanna against formidable Serbians was the best comeback effort of his Davis Cup career.
Former champions and Indian veterans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi blew away a strong start to make a shock exit from the men's doubles event of the Wimbledon championships after a second round 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 4-6 loss to Arnaud Clement and Lukas Dlouhy in London on Saturday.
It was a good day for India at the All-England Club, as Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza and Somdev Devvarman also progressed in the doubles.
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi's French Open campaign was cut short in the second round following a straight-set defeat against local pair of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra in Paris on Sunday.
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.
Defending champions Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy have been seeded third for the men's doubles at the French Open. They open their campaign against Swede Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands.
Indian stars Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi ended runners-up at the ATP AEGON championships after losing yet another final to American twins Mike and Bob Bryan, in London, on Monday.
Third seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi advanced to the doubles semi-finals of the AEGON Tennis Championships after a hard fought 6-4, 6-4 win over Filip Polasek and Igor Zelenay.
The Sports Ministry has chosen 152 athletes across disciplines for Rs. 50,000 allowance per month for their preparations for next year's Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi bowed out of the French Open men's doubles event with a straight-set defeat against unseeded Australian combination of Stephen Huss and Ashley Fisher in Paris on Saturday.
The Indian duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi rallied from a set down to score a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the German pair of Tommy Haas and Philipp Petzschner in the first round of the French Open men's doubles competition, in Paris on Thursday.
The seventh seeded Indo-Czech pair of Paes and Iveta Benesova brushed aside Frenchwoman Aravine Rezai and her Bulgarian partner Grigor DiMitrov 6-3, 6-1 in only 52 minutes. However, Bhupathi and his Chinese partner Jie Zheng had to fight hard before getting the better of Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Ukrain's Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-7 (3-7), 6-0, 10-8.
Striving hard to secure a place in the season-ending World Tour Finals, India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have got a first round bye in the Paris Masters event along with their respective partners.
'The best bet for Indian tennis to win a medal at the Olympics would be having Leander and Bopanna together.' Bikash Mohapatra/Rediff.com reveals how the AITA convinced Rohan Bopanna to partner Leander Paes in Rio,
Indian tennis stars Leander Paes and Sania Mirza cruised into the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals of the French Open along with their respective partners in Paris on Thursday. While Paes and his Swiss Partner Martina Hingis, winners of three Grand Slam titles last season, beat German-Colombian pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah 6-4 6-4 in the opening round, second seeded Sania and Ivan Dodig of Croatia eased past French duo of Mathilde Johansson and Tristan Lamasine 6-4 6-3 in their opener later in the day. However, it was curtains for another Indian Purav Raja, who, along with Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, crashed out in the opening round of the men's doubles event. The duo lost 1-6 2-6 against ninth seeded Polish-Austrian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Alexander Peya.
Somdev Devvarman ensured tennis contributed to India's swelling gold medal tally by winning the much-awaited yellow metal at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday. The Indian Davis Cupper beat Australia's Greg Jones 6-4, 6-2 in the men's singles final.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had things their way as India ruled the tennis courts at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday. The top seeded and favorites sailed into the men's doubles quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Sri Lanka's Thangarajah Dineshkanthan and Amresh Jayawickreme in the first round.
Adding to the joy of India's World Cup triumph, tennis players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won their second title of the season by clinching the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami to become number one in the ATP World Tour Doubles Team Rankings.
Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis sailed into the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open with straight sets win over Australian duo Matt Reid and Casey Dellacqua, in Melbourne on Monday.
