Leander Paes, (born June 17, 1973, Goa, India), Indian tennis player that had been one of the most successful doubles players in tennis history, with 8 career Grand Slam doubles titles and 10 career Grand Slam mixed doubles championships.
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Paes began playing tennis at age five, and in 1985 he joined a tennis academy in Madras (now Chennai). He won the 1990 Wimbledon junior title and was briefly ranked the number one junior player in the world.
Paes combined the Indian Davis Cup staff in 1990 and turned pro in 1991. Back in 1996 when he took the men's singles tennis bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games, he became the first Indian athlete as 1952 to win an individual Olympic medal.
Paes started a doubles partnership with countryman Mahesh Bhupathi in 1994. In 1997 and 1998, the duo captured six Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles titles out of the eight championship finals they attained during each year.
That year saw the set ascend to the number one ATP doubles standing, but individual problems involving them soon led to the dissolution of their full-time venture. Paes and Bhupathi did perform together on occasion over these years, including in the 2001 French Open, which they won for the next time.
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