Arguably India’s best doubles pairing, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had forged an increadibly successful partnership in the years they played together. Together, they picked up three Grand Slam men’s doubles titles, 25 ATP Tour titles, rose to world No 1 and also hold the record for the longest streak of doubles victories at the Davis Cup (24 wins between 1997 to 2010).
They won their first ATP title on home ground at the 1997 Chennai Open, adding five more titles to their tally that same year.
The reached greater heights in 1998, winning six ATP tour titles and reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open, French Open and US Open. But it would be the 1999 season where Paes and Bhupathi, often nicknamed ‘Lee-Hesh’, would cement their place in the Indian tennis annals.
Paes and Bhupathi would feature in the final of all four Grand Slam in the 1999 season, winning the French Open and Wimbledon titles.
The 1999 Australian Open final was Paes’ first and Bhupathi’s third – the latter had become the first Indian player to win a Grand Slam title when he won the 1997 French Open mixed doubles title with Japan’s Rika Haraki. Bhupathi lost the mixed doubles Wimbledon final in 1998 with Croatia’s Mirjana Lučić.
Grand Slam success was right around the corner as Paes and Bhupathi beat the Croatian-American pair of Goran Ivanisevic and Jeff Tarango 6-2, 7-5 in the 1999 French Open final to become the first Indians to win a doubles Grand Slam.
Soon after, they entered Wimbledon as the world No 1 in men’s doubles, a rank which they would hold for the rest of the year. The top seeds then beat defending champions Dutchman Paul Haarhuis and American Jared Palmer 6-7 (10), 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) to win their second Grand Slam of their career.
The Indian duo would cap off 1999 with a loss of 7-6 (7), 6-4 to the Canadian-American pair of Sebastien Lareau and Alex O’Brien in the US Open final.
Paes and Bhupathi would go on to win another Grand Slam in 2001 at the French Open and a gold in men’s doubles at the Busan Asian Games in 2002 before parting ways later that year. While they chose different partners for ATP tournaments and Grand Slams (Bhupathi won his fourth men’s doubles Grand Slam title at the 2002 US Open with Max Mirnyi), they would team up for India at the 2004 Athens Olympics, finishing fourth, and 2008 Beijing Olympics where they lost in the quarter-finals to Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.
The duo paired up again for the ATP Tour in 2011, winning ATP Tour titles in Chennai, Miami and Cincinnati and reaching the finals of the 2011 Australian Open, where they would lose 6-3, 6-4 to the American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan.
Bhupathi announced his retirement in 2013 with a career 10 Grand Slams (four men’s doubles and six mixed doubles), including a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles.
Paes’ last match came in the doubles match of the Davis Cup tie against Croatia in 2020.