Recent Defeat in Davis Cup Prevents Leander Paes From Achieving his Record of 43 Doubles Wins

Leander Paes and Saketh Myneni crashes out of the Davis cup doubles after being defeated by Spanish pair of Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez in the World Group play-off in Davis Cup. The Spanish pair defeated the Indian pair in four sets. The sets scores were  4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.After the Indian pair won the first set Indian fans were really elated. In the second set after being 5-4 down the Spaniards staged a comeback and played in an unstoppable way.

After winning the match Rafael Nadal said, “He (Leander) played a great match. It was so amazing tonight, it is a pleasure to play him here in his country. He is one of the biggest stars of doubles and one of the best player in the history of the sport.”

Leander, India’s ace professional tennis player ,is acknowledged as one of the best doubles and mixed doubles players of all times, He  achieved a career Grand Slam in each discipline. He has in his kitty eight doubles and ten mixed doubles Grand Slam titles and is the oldest man to have won a Grand Slam title. He holds a career Grand Slam in men’s doubles and mixed doubles and achieved the rare feat of winning both the doubleles and mixed doubles titles at the 1999 Wimbledon tournament. His mixed doubles Wimbledon title in 2010 made him the second man (after Rod Laver) to win Wimbledon titles in three decades. On the other hand, Saketh Myneni won a Gold medal in Mixed doubles and a Silver medal in Men’s doubles event at Incheon Asian Games 2014. He made his Indian Davis Cup Team debut at the 2014 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group I Tie with Chinese Taipei, where he partnered with Rohan Bopanna in the doubles.

Speaking about his recent victory against the Indian pair Nadal said, ”So, it was great to compete against him (Leander), it was a tough match. They played well but we are happy to have the victory and come back to the world group, that’s where we think we have to be with so many of our players being in the top 100. That’s what our goal was and we did it. For us, it was a very important confrontation after two years being away from the World Group.” From the statement, Nadal’s immense respect for Leander is clearly visible.

Peas could not achieve his record 43 wins in doubles in Davis Cup because of his recent defeat. Unruffled by the defeat Paes said, “India I’m not retiring, not until I get that record”.