A nation obsessed with cricket missed a trick on Wednesday. Leander Paes and his Canadian doubles partner Daniel Nestor advanced into the second round of the 2015 French Open, defeating their opponents, James Duckworth and Chris Guccione, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5. Not a big deal, right? Wrap your mind around this: this was Leander Paes’  700th doubles victory.

There are only seven other players with more doubles victories. Considering that he has no plans of stopping anytime soon, it wouldn’t be unrealistic to suggest that Paes has every chance of finishing at a much higher position.

Astonishing record

For a country that remembers even obscure cricket statistics like the number of ducks Sachin Tendulkar got in his career, it’s a shame that Leander Paes hasn’t received the same kind of adulation.

Fifty five career titles. Eight Grand Slams. Eight mixed double crowns. Oldest man to win a Grand Slam. A bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Semi-finalist in the 2004 Olympics.

Whichever way you look at it, these are incredible achievements. They tell the story of a man whose hunger for success led him on to greater heights. Leander Paes started his career only in 1991. Over the course of the next 20 years, he has blazed his way across the international tennis circuit, proudly carrying India’s flag on his shoulders.

His greatest moment

In a career littered with sporting success, it is difficult to pick only one greatest moment. But, it was his bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics that catapulted him into greatness.

Leander Paes was ranked 126th in the world then. India had waited 44 years for an second individual Olympic medal after Khashaba Jadhav had won a wrestling bronze at the 1952 Olympics.

He arrived in Atlanta with the entire nation’s expectations on him. At that stage, he had never won a round in single main draw of a Grand Slam. Were the expectations misplaced?

It didn’t matter. This was Leander Paes, the giant-killer, taking down higher-ranked players, almost for fun. He breezed through the first two rounds, before defeating then No. 10 Thomas Enquist in two sets. It was the turn of Renzo Furlan to bite the dust in the last eight, before Paes moved on to a semi-final meeting with tennis legend, Andre Agassi.

Agassi did defeat Paes but it was a close match: 6-7, 3-6. Paes had two set points in the first set but couldn’t hold on. Even more tragically, Paes tore a tendon in his right wrist, just ahead of his bronze playoff against Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni.

That seemed to be the clincher. With a broken tendon and a disappointing loss behind him, the fight should have disappeared from Paes’ stomach. Especially, when Paes lost the first set against Meligeni 3-6 and the rain came down, it seemed India’s wait for an individual medal was bound to continue.

But, once the rain abated, Paes was a different force. Ignoring the pain in his wrist, he struck back to win the next two sets 6-2, 6-4. The bronze medal was his. India’s wait was finally over.

Rohit Brijnath, in a 1996 India Today report detailing that achievement, asked how he won a game on a day when he technically played his worst tennis of the tournament. Leander Paes answered with just one word, “Guts.”

The best description of Leander comes from that report: “Indians are quiet, undemonstrative; Leander plays like a man soaked in kerosene who fires himself up by lighting matchsticks with his teeth.”

Battling illness

It’s not always been smooth running for Paes. One of the darkest moments of his life came in 2003 when after winning the Wimbledon, Paes was admitted to the Anderson Cancer Centre in Orlando with a suspected brain tumour. He was given only six months to live.

This was a time of great adversity for him with the entire country offering prayers for his wellbeing. In a mark of how much their partnership meant to her, Martina Navratilova, Paes’ mixed doubles partner at the time, announced that she would not participate in that section of the US Open, preferring to wait for Paes to recover.

True to form, Paes soon bounced back and came back a stronger man. He recounts that that incident made him realise “the important things in life”.

At 41, Paes’ hunger for excellence does not like abating. Along with his own titles, he continues to act as a mentor for younger players like Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza. But there’s no denying that he’ll continue to set his own sights set on more and more Grand Slams and titles.