Never say never with paes

Away from the din of the Commonwealth Games, Leander Paes has written another piece of tennis history. India’s Mr Davis Cup broke Italy’s Nicola Pietrangeli’s record of holding the most number of doubles wins in the competition. The soon-to-be 45-year-old’s 43rd doubles win helped India to a 3-2 win after being 0-2 down in the tie against China.

One could argue that Paes’s legacy was already set in stone and he did not need this record to become any more of a legend. He has been a former doubles World No. 1, has an individual Olympic medal from 1996, has won 18 Majors and beaten Pete Sampras when the American was the world’s top ranked player.

But personal landmarks aside, brand Paes becomes special whenever it is time to wear the Indian colours. He has beaten Goran Ivanisevic on grass and Henri Leconte on French clay. He went on a 24-match unbeaten run with Mahesh Bhupathi (a record which even the Bryan brothers haven’t matched). The chest-thumping and flag-waving made him a figure Indians associate with passion for sports. He became the living embodiment of commitment to the national cause. For this reason, Paes’s exceptionally long career is remarkable. 

It’s also for these reasons that people sometimes become wary of Paes. His very public acts of brinkmanship with the Davis Cup and Olympic teams resembled a poorly-written Bollywood drama; he almost always uses the ‘look at me, see how passionate I am for national duty’ card to try and get his way. Non-negotiable codes like honour, loyalty and respect seemed to evaporate if he sensed he was going to be at the receiving end.

Even last year, there was an unsavoury episode after the Davis Cup skipper Bhupathi did not pick him for the final team. Now that he has the record—he was stuck on 42 wins for 21 months—will he embrace the sunset? Or will he use it as new ammo ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and go for the one doubles medal missing from his cabinet? With Paes, never say never.