Leander Paes has been consistent for many years now in the world of tennis. He, along with Sania Mirza, had represented India in all the major grand slams held all throughout the year including the Australian Open, Australian Open etc. For three decades he had been making India proud in the matches he played.

Early Life of Leander Paes
Leander was born in Calcutta, India, on 17th June 1973 to a Goan father. Vece Paes and Jennifer Paes were his parents. He was raised in Kolkata (Calcutta) and educated at La Martiniere Calcutta, and the St. Xavier`s College of the University of Calcutta. His parents were both sports persons. Vece was a midfielder in the bronze medal-winning Indian field hockey team at the 1972 Munich Olympics. His mother captained the Indian basketball team in the 1980 Asian basketball championship. Paes enrolled with the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in Madras (Chennai) in 1985, where he was coached by Dave O`Meara. In this academy he developed as a player and became one of the best young players in tennis. The youngster rose to fame in 1990 when he captured the Junior Wimbledon title and the No.1 ranking in junior tennis. Leander Paes was ranked as the World No. 6 in the ATP Doubles Ranking in 2008.

Personal Life of Leander Paes
Paes had dated Bollywood actress Mahima Choudhury for few years. He then had a live-in relationship with Rhea Pillai, with whom he also has a daughter but later there was a rumour that they were not married and would be separating.

Early Playing Career of Leander Paes
Paes first won titles at the Junior US Open and the Junior Wimbledon and he turned professional in 1991. He rose to the number 1 in the world junior rankings. In 1992, he reached the quarter finals of the doubles event in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with Ramesh Krishnan.

Paes began a doubles partnership with countryman Mahesh Bhupathi in 1994. In both 1997 and 1998, the duo captured six Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles titles out of the eight tournament finals they reached during each year. Paes and Bhupathi advanced to the doubles finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in 1999, winning the French Open and Wimbledon but losing in the Australian and U.S. Opens. That year saw the pair ascend to the number one ATP doubles ranking, but personal problems between them soon led to the dissolution of their full-time partnership.

Leander Paes" Career in Doubles
Paes has won 55 doubles titles so far and has been a runner up 39 times during his long and illustrious career. He had played with over 100 different players in his doubles career. His doubles career titles are as follows:

Year	Championship	Partner	Outcome
1999	Australian Open	Mahesh Bhupathi	Runner-Up
1999	French Open	Mahesh Bhupathi	Winner
1999	Wimbledon	Mahesh Bhupathi	Winner
1999	US Open	Mahesh Bhupathi	Runner-Up
2001	French Open	Mahesh Bhupathi	Winner
2004	US Open	David Riki	Runner-Up
2006	Australian Open	Martin Damm	Runner-Up
2006	US Open	Martin Damm	Winner
2008	US Open	Lukas Dlouhy	Runner-Up
2009	French Open	Lukas Dlouhy	Winner
2009	US Open	Lukas Dlouhy	Winner
2010	French Open	Lukas Dlouhy	Runner-Up
2011	Australian Open	Mahesh Bhupathi	Runner-Up
2012	Australian Open	Radek Stepanek	Winner
2012	US Open	Radek Stepanek	Runner-Up
2013	US Open	Radek Stepanek	Winner

His mixed doubles title are 17 in number. They are as follows:-

Year	Championship	Partner	Outcome
1999	Wimbledon	Lisa Raymond	Winner
2001	US Open	Lisa Raymond	Runner-Up
2003	Australian Open	Martina Navratilova	Winner
2003	Wimbledon	Martina Navratilova	Winner
2004	Australian Open	Martina Navratilova	Runner-Up
2005	French Open	Martina Navratilova	Runner-Up
2007	US Open	Meghann Shaughnessy	Runner-Up
2008	US Open	Cara Black	Winner
2009	Wimbledon	Cara Black	Runner-Up
2009	US Open	Cara Black	Runner-Up
2010	Australian Open	Cara Black	Winner
2010	Wimbledon	Cara Black	Winner
2012	Australian Open	Elena Vesnina	Runner-Up
2012	Wimbledon	Elena Vesnina	Runner-Up
2015	Australian Open	Martina Hingis	Winner
2015	Wimbledon	Martina Hingis	Winner
2015	US Open	Martina Hingis	Winner

Paes" Davis Cup Career
In the year 1991 Paes played his first Davis Cup match partnering Zeeshan Ali in a doubles match against the Japanese team in a match that went on to have five sets. He is considered one of the top Davis cup players for his country, with a record of 89-32 overall, as of July 2015. He played an important role in the Indian Davis cup team that reached the World Group from 1991-1998. He was part of the Indian Davis Cup team that reached the semifinals of the 1993 Davis Cup with wins against Switzerland and France, eventually losing to Australia. He teamed up with Bhupathi to beat Hirszon and Ivanisevic of Croatia in 1995, Martin Damm and Petr Korda of the Czech Republic in 1997, Nicolas Massu and Marcelo Rios of Chile in 1997, Broad and Tim Henman in 1998, and Simon Aspelin and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden in 2005. In 2007, Leander has three wins (two doubles and one singles) and no losses in the Davis Cup.

Paes and Mahesh Bhupati
Both Paes and Bhupati when paired was called the "Indian express" by many. Their relationship was very strong for few years but they detached themselves from playing with each other later. But in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, they decided to play together for their country, and lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champions Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.


In 2011, the "Indian Express" pair won the doubles title at Chennai Open. They reunited to play in a Grand Slam Tournament after nine years and claimed runners-up in the 2011 Australian Open and reached the semifinals in the year-end championships. The Indian duo has a 303-103 career record together. They have a higher success rate against various top teams. They have a Davis Cup record of longest winning streak in doubles, with 23 straight wins.

The Davis Cup record of Paes and Bhupati are as follows:

Year	Opponents
1995	Sasa Hirszon / Goran Ivanisevic
1996	Jacco Eltingh / Paul Haarhuis
1996	Jonas Bjorkman / Nicklas Kulti
1997	Martin Damm/ Petr Korda
1997	Nicola Massu/ Marcelo Rios
1998	Neil Broad/ Tim Henman
1999	Dong-Hyun Kim / Hyung-Taik Lee
1999	Shan Jiang / Zhu Benqiang
2001	Ran Xu / Jing-Zhu Yang
2001	Thomas Shimada/ Takao Suzuki
2001	Donald Johnson/ Jared Palmer
2002	Patrick Chucri / Ali Hamadeh
2002	James Shortall / Daniel Willman
2003	Jun Kato / Thomas Shimada
2003	Alistair Hunt / Mark Nielsen
2004	Mark Nielsen / Matthew Prentice
2004	Thomas Shimada/ Takahiro Terachi
2005	Yu Jr. Wang / Zhu Benqiang
2005	Murad Inoyatov / Denis Istomin
2005	Simon Aspelin / Jonas Bjorkman
2006	Woong-Sun Jun / Oh-Hee Kwon
2006	Jalil Khan / Asim Shafik
2008	Satoshi Iwabuchi / Takao Suzuki
2008	Adrian Cruciat / Horia Tecau
2009	Tsung-Hua Yang / Chu-Huan Yi
2010	Teymuraz Gabashvili / Igor Kunitsyn
2010	Marcelo Melo / Bruno Soares

Acting Career of Leander Paes
Leander made his film debut in Ashok Kohli`s Rajdhani Express, a socio-political thriller. He represents a character named Keshav. The film aspires to raise grave questions about the current scenario of our society at large and immoral tendencies of people but all of that gets overshadowed by poor editing, over-the-top performances, pointless scenes and illogical dialogues. He tries his best to fit into the role he gets to portray but given his image and body language it doesn`t work for him. Actor Amitosh Nagpal has dubbed for Paes as Hindi is not his forte.