Celebrating Leander Paes

It was midnight and the floodlit Dubai Tennis Stadium was bewitched by a man who refuses to grow old. Clearly, for the 44-yearold Leander Paes, the night was still young. And he was still having fun as his delicate touch caught his younger rivals on the back foot.

“Lee is on fire,” Richard Evans, who works for ATP, roared at the press box when a ball dropped dead on the other side of the court after an exquisite volley from Leander.

It was one of the several magical volleys he played that night in his semifinal win with his American partner James Cerretani.

“That’s the Lee we all love,” Richard said, looking at me.

“You have seen nothing, man,” I felt like telling him.

For many of us who grew up in India in the ’90s, the defining moments were not the glorious landmarks in Sachin Tendulkar’s epoch-making journey.

It was Paes rather, who made our hearts swell with pride when he performed his giant-slaying acts in Davis Cup. This was despite having to play three lung-busting best-of-five set matches in three days.

“I did that for 18 years,” Paes now recalls with pride.

And that is why, this man — the maker of the most stirring underdog epics and one who put his country on the highest pedestal in tennis — will always hold a special place in our hearts.

I felt a lump in my throat that night in Dubai when I saw his inextinguishable flame.

At a time when the ageless Roger Federer has confounded pundits with his fairy tale return to Grand Slam-winning form, it’s surreal to see Paes, the oldest man in doubles, play with the exuberance of a teenager.

I wonder what’s left to prove for a man after having built a trophy cabinet where he keeps his 18 doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slams, as well as an Olympic singles bronze medal. Nobody, not even his biggest fan, would have cried if he had walked into the sunset after completing his second ‘career slam’ in 2016.

But no, this veteran still wakes up every morning and invests his sweat to make those volleys look easy.

“I will be 45 in a couple of months and I have proved that age is just a number,” he told me after Evans finally managed to connect us for a one-on-one interview.

“You know, I am very blessed to have a wonderful career. Now I wake up every morning, some days I feel great, sometimes I don’t. But what’s important is to appreciate what I had all these years — this is my 29th year on the Tour,” he says, reminding me that when he started his journey only the rich in India could afford colour television sets.

“Growing up as a young boy in Calcutta, having the parents that I have, my two elder sisters, they taught me to appreciate what life gives you and that appreciation is what makes me a very happy man.”

Now, it is clear that he is making his fans happy with his desire to continue his remarkable journey.

“I am fit, I am strong, I am happy, I am moving fast. The way I play on the court, the opponents are keeping the ball away from me,” he laughed.

“So that is something I take pride in: To keep on being a powerhouse in what I do, to motivate people in the world. The world today is going through a lot — there’s terrorism, the cost of living is high. I feel happy if I can motivate people to wake up every morning when you’re not feeling great. You can still be the best you can be.”

I ask him about his good friend and occasional training partner, Roger Federer. Has the Swiss maestro’s stunning return to his best form surprised Leander?

“Not at all,” he says. “We actually see what the guy is doing on the Tour. Roger’s reinvention has been amazing. Rafa’s injured, Andy Murray has been injured, Djokovic and Wawrinka are injured. And Roger, the oldest one of the lot, with the most wear and tear on his body, is still out there and winning like… amazing! That’s why my answer to you is: age is just a number!”

His face broke into a beautiful smile when I said that India had not returned emptyhanded from the Olympics ever since he won the bronze in 1996.

“Yes, I am very happy to be a part of that movement to prove that we can be Olympic medal winners. But in order to do that, we have to work hard. We have to get away from making excuses and we have to find a way to achieve excellence.”

Are we likely to see him at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo?

“For me, the country always comes first. If they call me, I will be there for my country,” he says.

Of course, we know what it means to you, Leander Paes.

You will be 47 by then. Twenty-four years after your Olympic bronze in Atlanta.

Also, if you do make it to Tokyo, you will perhaps be the only athlete to have won an Olympic medal in the previous century.

And that would be some story!