LEANDER PAES WINS US Open mixed doubles crown

At 35, Leander Paes may not be getting any younger but having added the US Open mixed doubles title to his cupboard, the Indian ace is just not interested in retirement talks. Paes partnered Cara Black and the Indo-Zimbabwean pair struck gold in their maiden Grand Slam by capturing the mixed doubles title taming Britain's Jamie Murray and American Liezel Huber 7-6 (8/6), 6-4. The triumph increased Paes's tally of Grand Slam crowns to eight.

Games went with serve in the first set, which went to the tie breaker, where Paes and Black fought back from 4-6 down to take the set at 8-6. In the second set, Paes and Black got the crucial break in the fifth game, breaking Murray. They held serve comfortable thereafter to take the set and match.

Leander Paes was denied the double of winning the two doubles titles when he and his Czech Republic partner Lukas Dloughy lost a pulsating men's doubles final to American twins Bob and Mike Bryan at Flushing Meadows.

In 1999, Paes had partnered Mahesh Bhupathi and Lisa Raymond to win the men's doubles and mixed doubles crowns at Wimbledon Savoring every moment of it, Paes said age is not an issue with him and he would go on as long as he enjoys it.

"It's fairly simple for me. If I wake up 31 days in a row in the morning and I feel like I don't enjoy this game, I'll stop on the 32nd day. That's always been the way for me," Paes said in the post-match interview.

The Indian ace said he woke up with a purpose and was happy to get his hand to the title, after missing it twice in the past. "You know, it was in the back of my mind that I hadn't won this one. I've been in two finals here. I was match point up in one of them with Lisa Raymond many years ago, and today I woke up this morning with a purpose.

"I woke up really fired up, and when I came out to practice, I just said to Cara, you know..." Paes heaped praise on Cara and said they would continue playing together.

"We actually talked about it before we even started this week, that we're going to play together all of next year. For me, no matter what the result this week would have been, I would stick with Cara and play with her through the year," he said. "Today, really, I think she won the match for us. At 4-6 in the tie-break, she made an unbelievable reflex volley to break the guy's serve at 5-6... I think at that stage, Cara really broke back and won that set for us. And to play with her is a treat, you know. "I think that being our first week, we figured each other's games out. She knows she's got to do everything. I just have to sit and watch," Paes quipped. That's a lie," Cara, sitting besides, retorted.

Looking at the future, Paes said, "I've won the Australian twice. I've won Wimbledon twice. Never won the French. I've been in the finals there. That's the only Grand Slam I haven't won yet, and I hope Cara and myself can do that next year."

Cara too returned the compliment and said playing with Paes is a great experience. "Leander was great. He was getting it back for me all the time, but we just got down that one break and that mini break in the tie-break, but — yeah, it was — it was all reaction, you know," she said.

Leander Adrian Paes (born June 17, 1973) is an Indian professional tennis player who currently features in the doubles events in the ATP tour and the Davis Cup tournament. He is one of the most successful professional Indian tennis players and also the former captain of the Indian tennis team. He has won various doubles and mixed doubles events at the Tennis Grand Slam events. He is also the recipient of India's highest sporting honor, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1996–1997 and the Padmashri award in 2001 for his contribution to Tennis in India.

Apart from his eight Grand Slam victories at doubles and mixed doubles events, he is famous for his several memorable Davis Cup performances playing for India and also for winning a bronze medal for India in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Leander was born in Goa, India to Vece Paes and Jennifer Paes and raised in Calcutta, India. He was educated at La Martiniere for Boys, Calcutta. His father and mother were both former Olympians. His father Vece Paes was a hockey player who represented India in the 1972 Munich Olympic games, in the hockey team that won the bronze medal. His mother captained the Indian basketball team in the 1980 Asian basketball championship. Paes enrolled with the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in Madras in 1985 where Dave'O'Meara coached him. The academy played a key role in his early development. Leander shot into international fame when he won the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and rose to No.1 in the junior world-rankings. Paes is the great grandson of the Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt. Previously having dated Bollywood actress Mahima Chaudhary, he is now married to Rhea Pillai and has a daughter Aiyana Paes

BY HEMA FERNANDO