Paes shares words of wisdom with his junior partner Ramkumar after their 6-3, 6-4 win over Rawat-Bendre pair to cruise to Round Two
Leander Paes (left) chats with partner Ramkumar Ramanathan during the first round of the ATP Challenger event at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune yesterday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
Pune: Ramkumar Ramanathan had a rough first half of the day, having lost early in the singles event of the KPIT ATP Challenger event at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here, yesterday.
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However, the second half was a rather warm one, thanks to his senior partner Leander Paes.
Walk in the park
The two cruised into the next round of the doubles event here with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Sidharth Rawat- Anvit Bendre, but more importantly Ramkumar learnt some valuable tennis lessons from the legendary 18-time Grand Slam winner.
After the match, in the locker room, Paes, in between his cooling down massage, explained the finer nuances of the game to the 21-year-old.
"Leander took out his phone and pulled out some interesting stats from an application.
"It showed that I had a much better point-conversion rate on my first serve rather than my second serve.
"So, from now on I have to try and win more points on my first serve," Ramnathan told mid-day here yesterday.
Paes said he was only happy to help.
"All the three players on court today around me were youngsters and I'm only glad to contribute my bit to the game in India.
"It's great to play in Pune. The surface here is really quick," said the 43-year-old even as he jostled between autograph and selfie-hunters of all age groups for a good one hour after his victory on center court.
Paes eyes more glory
As for his next personal milestone, the former Davis Cup captain, who played a record seventh Olympics in Rio recently, said he hoped it's not very far away.
"I'm going for 20 Grand Slam titles. And I hope it happens soon," he signed off.
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