Leander Paes, the long-playing record

In 1991, India was yet to open the door of its economy. Cable TV was still in its first days. Sachin Tendulkar had scored just one of the 100 international centuries he would go on to. The Soviet Union was still a confederation of 15 states that would birth many countries. Before they would go on to take their giant steps in 1991, a 17-year-old Indian boy that year entered the hurly-burly of professional tennis. Thirty years later, Leander Paes is poised to exit, at the age of 46.

As tennis careers go, it is recognizable in many respects, conventionally and tangibly, unconventionally and intangibly. Conventionally and tangibly, one could count Paes’ doubles title haul and that would make for noteworthy reading: 18 Grand Slams across men’s doubles and mixed doubles, and 54 titles in men’s doubles. However, stopping at that would be to miss the bigger picture of human possibilities.

Unconventionally and intangibly, Paes’ career has been about using grit, heart, and smart to make much more of his, relatively speaking, modest talents. It runs through his career and it shows up as something he embraced and pursued more readily and more easily than many of his peers across tennis generations: longevity.

Among players who have been his doubles contemporaries, Paes is up there when it comes to weeks spent in the top 10 rankings in men’s doubles—the elite group in doubles. At 461 weeks or about nine years, his count of weeks spent in the top 10 is ninth across players who were active during his time. Fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi—once friend and then foe, with whom he won 26 titles—is two places above Paes.

Extend that to the top 20 ranking and Paes leapfrogs Bhupathi and slots in at the fifth spot. Three of the four players above Paes were part of doubles pairings that were sticky. There are the Bryan brothers, Mike and Bob, who are still active. There is Todd Woodbridge, who had a long run with Mark Woodforde. This raises the tantalising question of what if the Paes-Bhupathi had stayed hyphenated longer on court.

Paes first entered the top 10 in doubles ranking in 1997 and remained a fixture there till 2000. This was the Paes-Bhupathi golden run and saw Paes even ascend to be the world’s top-ranked men’s doubles player. Their pairing was electrifying, right up there with pairings before them who forged a collective identity with a partnership that was sticky and led to success.

Before Bhupathi, Leander’s still young career could be broken into two phases. The first was when singles was his first pursuit — an Olympic medal in 1996 and some stellar matches in the pressure and workload cauldron that is the Davis Cup. In singles, he moved in the ranking band of 100-200 till about 2001 before giving it up.

The second phase was when Paes turned his attention to doubles in a bigger way. As the game moved to power-hitting from the baseline, something that was never his strength, the switch to doubles for a player with quick hands and court craft made sense. Paes’ doubles career took off in 1997. He’s been a fixture on the tour and in the main draws since. Besides the first run with Bhupathi, he had another longish stint in men’s doubles between 2009 and 2014.

In the set of his most successful doubles contemporaries, Paes stands at number eight in terms of total matches played, across singles and doubles. His winning percentage of 62% is the lowest in this set (Bhupathi is at 65% and the Bryan brothers lead with 75%). However, in terms of the number of years on tour, he leads them all.

That also partly underscores how Paes has managed his workload, especially in the past few years. When one talks about longevity, the arena of tennis where it came together for Paes like little else was Davis Cup. The team competition, in Paes’ heydays, called on a top player to play three matches in three days, each over a five-set format that didn’t draw the line at some point. Play he did. With 91 wins, Paes is fifth among all players in terms of Davis Cup wins and there’s not a single contemporary in this top 10 list. He leads all in Davis Cup doubles wins. He has as many singles wins too.

It is not bad for a player who was prone to losing his forehand and could not stitch a rally from the backcourt. It is a testament to staying the course and maximizing.

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