1. Leander Adrian Paes is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
64 Facts About Leander Paes
1. 2.
Leander Paes is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-time and holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup.
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Leander Paes repeated the feat by winning a Roland Garros title in three different decades with his mixed doubles title in 2016.
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Leander Paes won a bronze medal for India in men's singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games making him the first Asian in Olympic history to win a tennis medal and the only Indian to date.
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Leander Paes competed in consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016, making him the only tennis player to compete in seven Olympic Games.
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Leander Paes is the most decorated male tennis player in Asian Games history with 5 Gold and 3 Bronze medals.
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Leander Paes was won medals in every category and is the highest Indian gold medal winning athlete across all sports in Asian Games history.
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Leander Paes is a former Davis Cup team captain, where in addition his Davis Cup all-time doubles win record with 45 victories, he has the fourth highest number of overall wins in Davis Cup history with 93 total victories across singles and doubles in a 30 year career for India with match wins in 4 different decades.
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Leander Paes played in World Team Tennis for the Washington Kastles.
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Leander Paes was on the 2009,2011,2012,2013,2014, and 2015 championship teams and was named Male MVP for 2009 and 2011.
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Leander Paes retired from professional tennis in 2020, following his last Davis Cup tie in Croatia, with a record 1295 weeks spent ranked in the Top 100 in men's doubles.
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Leander Adrian Paes was born in Calcutta, India, on 17 June 1973.
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Leander Paes's father, Vece Paes, was a field hockey player of Goan Catholic descent.
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Leander Paes's mother, Jennifer Paes, was a Bengali basketball player from Calcutta.
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Leander Paes studied at La Martiniere Calcutta, Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School and at St Xavier's College.
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Leander Paes's mother captained the Indian basketball team in the 1980 Asian basketball championship.
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Leander Paes is a direct descendant of Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta through his mother.
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Leander Paes enrolled with the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in Madras in 1985, where he was coached by Dave O'Meara.
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Leander Paes earned international fame when he won the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and reached No 1 in the junior world rankings at age 17.
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Leander Paes first won titles at the Junior US Open and the Junior Wimbledon.
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Leander Paes became number 1 in the world junior rankings.
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Leander Paes cited the match as one of his greatest performances, in part because his wrist was severely injured.
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Leander Paes was awarded the highest sporting honor by the government of India, the Khel Ratna in 1996.
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Leander Paes teamed up with Lisa Raymond to win the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon.
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Leander Paes again teamed with Bhupathi for the US Open, but lost in the first round again.
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Leander Paes was given the honor of carrying the Indian Flag at the opening ceremony.
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Leander Paes was awarded the Padmashri by the Government of India in 2001.
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In 2002, Leander Paes paired up with Michael Hill with moderate success.
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Leander Paes won the mixed doubles events at the Australian and Wimbledon with Martina Navratilova, both in 2003.
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Weeks later, Leander Paes was admitted to the MD Anderson Cancer Center for a suspected brain tumour that was later found to be neurocysticercosis, a parasitic brain infection.
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Leander Paes had to miss the US Open, but recovered by the end of that year.
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Leander Paes led the Indian tennis team at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 and won two golds in the men's doubles and mixed doubles.
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Leander Paes maintained his doubles ranking in the top 20 in the world between 2005 and 2007.
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Leander Paes began the 2010 season in good form, again winning the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Cara Black.
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Leander Paes started the year pairing with Radek Stepanek winning the Australian Open men's doubles beating the Bryan brothers and completed his Career Grand Slam in men's doubles.
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Leander Paes then went on to complete at hattrick of wins at the Miami Masters with his 3rd consecutive win pairing with Stepanek.
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Leander Paes became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title and the first ever aged above 40 years.
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Leander Paes won the 2014 Malaysian Open men's doubles with Marcin Matkowski.
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On 1 February, Leander Paes captured his seventh Grand Slam mixed doubles crown at the 2015 Australian Open with Martina Hingis.
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At the 2015 French Open, Leander Paes started a new partnership with Daniel Nestor.
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At Wimbledon 2015, Leander Paes again teamed up with Hingis to win the mixed doubles championship.
42.
On 12 September 2015, Leander Paes won the mixed doubles at the 2015 US Open with Hingis, defeating Sam Querrey and Bethanie Mattek-Sands in three sets.
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On 3 June 2016, Leander Paes completed his Career Grand Slam in mixed by winning the 2016 French Open with Hingis, thus joining an elite league of players.
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Leander Paes broke Davidson's record for most Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.
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Leander Paes later paired up with Andre Begemann, where they reached the final in the Winston-Salem Open.
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Leander Paes turned up for the Davis Cup against Spain with Saketh Myneni, losing to Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez in 4 sets.
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Leander Paes played in the 2017 season with his 111th partner, Andre Sa.
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Leander Paes reached the semis of the Dubai Open and at Delray Beach.
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Leander Paes then played a series of challenger events, never getting his ranking above 49th.
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Leander Paes played with Adil Shamasdin, Scott Lipsky, and Purav Raja.
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Leander Paes was recalled to India's Davis Cup squad to play against China.
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On 7 April 2018, Leander Paes became the most successful player in Davis Cup history with his 43rd doubles victory.
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Leander Paes was selected for the 2018 Asian Games, but the day before the Games started, he opted out citing the lack of a doubles specialist to accompany him.
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Leander Paes become the oldest ATP Tour semi-finalist since 2006 when he reached the semi-finals of the Hall of Fame Championship with Marcus Daniell in July 2019.
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Leander Paes started his Davis Cup career in 1990, when he partnered Zeeshan Ali in doubles to beat the Japanese team in a five-set encounter.
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Leander Paes played a key role on the Indian team that reached the World Group from 1991 to 1998.
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Leander Paes was part of the Indian team that reached the semifinals 1993 with wins against Switzerland and France, eventually losing to Australia.
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In 2007, Leander Paes had three wins and no losses.
59.
Leander Paes defeated Henri Leconte in the same week, and although Ramesh Krishnan won the tie-breaker against Rodolphe Gilbert, it was Leander Paes who put that match over the top.
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Leander Paes played at the year-end championships with Bhupathi each year from 1997 to 2000, as well as in 2002 and 2011, reaching three finals.
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Leander Paes has been described as having a strange playing style by Andre Agassi.
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Leander Paes once stated in an interview that although he and Bhupathi are friends, he did not consider pairing with his former teammate.
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Leander Paes threatened to withdraw from the Olympics rather than play with Vardhan, whose world ranking was 296, but withdrew the threat a week later.
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Leander Paes made his film debut in Ashok Kohli's Rajdhani Express, a socio-political thriller.