Praise pours in for crafty Paes

New Delhi, April 8: What Leander Paes has achieved by creating a Davis Cup world record on a “phenomenal” day for Indian tennis is unlikely to be matched by anyone even in distant future, feels captain Mahesh Bhupathi and India’s tennis fraternity endorsed the view.

Paes, approaching 45, surpassed Italy’s Nicola Pietrangeli to take that record 43rd win, which made him the most successful doubles player in the history of Davis Cup.

“I am very excited that it has finally happened. It was always inevitable. Now an Indian holding the record is very special for our sport especially. I believe this record will stay very long,” non- playing captain Bhupathi said from Tianjin.

Bhupathi’s predecessor Anand Amritraj also hailed Paes for his longevity.

“Great achievement by Leander to get the record of 43 doubles wins in Davis Cup. He deserves it, and it will probably never be surpassed. I’m glad our paths crossed more than 30 years ago and I was able to pick him for our BAT Academy. He has done our country proud and was the crowning

● “Great achievement by Leander to get the record of 43 doubles wins in Davis Cup. He deserves it, and it will probably never be surpassed. I’m glad our paths crossed more than 30 years ago and I was able to pick him for our BAT Academy. He has done our country proud,” Anand Amritraj said.

moment,” Amritraj said.

Amritraj also praised the young members of the team for pulling off an incredible 3- 2 win after going down 2- 3.

“It’s a wonderful effort by our doubles team, Ramkumar and Prajnesh to pull this tie out after a poor start yesterday. Congrats to them,” he said.

India’s coach and Paes’ first partner in Davis Cup Zeeshan Ali said, “Leander showed why he is the most successful doubles players. I won’t say they played the greatest match but they played well.” — PTI