For all those Indian tennis lovers, who've been ecstatic about the Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi partnership, here's a bit of news that is not necessarily good
For all those Indian tennis lovers, who've been ecstatic about the Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi partnership, here's a bit of news that is not necessarily good. The partnership is not a long term one. "As of now, Mahesh and I have mutually agreed that this will not necessarily be a long-term commitment. In fact, for now we are only committed to playing the Chennai Open (January 3-9, 2011) and thereafter the year's first Grand Slam ufffd the Australia Open (January 17-30)," Paes told MiD DAY yesterday.
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| Leander Paes (left) and Mahesh Bhupathi |
The duo have won three Grand Slam titles together ufffd the French Open in 1999 and 2001 and Wimbledon in 1999 ufffd while Paes has bagged a career 12 Grand Slam titles and Bhupathi 11. "The idea is to take things as they come and not to think too far ahead. We'll see how we are faring and if the results come along and if everything else is happy and healthy then obviously we'll be together for long. I, for one, am not too keen to play a 25-week season however given my business and film commitments. I'm planning to play just about 14 to 15 tournaments this year, which will include the four Slams and all the Masters," added Paes.
Speaking of the coming together of the pair after a nine-year gap, Paes said: "It so happened that Lukas (Dlouhy) and me despite having won Grand Slams, were not doing too well together towards the end of the year. And Mahesh too was without a partner as his partner Max Mirnyi is set to team up with Daniel Nestor. So, we thought of getting together as our experience and the history gives us the best shot at winning a Grand Slam."
There's a little glitch here however. Paes has not been able to make too much time for training in the recent past given his Bollywood dreams.
"I've been shooting for 16 hours a day in the last week. But I'm enjoying every moment of being in front of the camera. As for the training, my dadu00a0 (Olympian Vece Paes) is in town to get that sorted. I should start hitting balls in a couple of days," said Paes, who in all probability, could kick off his partnership with Bhupathi with an exhibition match against US Open finalists India's Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Ehsam Qureshi in Dubai over the weekend.
