Leander Paes thread...

[jaydeep]

Lee and Benoit r into the semis without losing any sweat as their opponents retired after playing only 4 games ... Next, Lee and Benoit r playing against the French pair.

At $77.8K+H Mouratoglou Open 2019, Sophia Antipolis (Biot), France

[QF] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Benoit Paire (FRA) bt (WC) Rudolf Molleker (GER)/ Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 4-0 retd.

[SF] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Benoit Paire (FRA) vs (WC) Enzo Couacaud (FRA)/ Tristan Lamasine (FRA)

[PKBasu]

Paes/Paire are a promising pair...

[Prashant]

It paes to be a promising paire...

[knarayen]

It paes to be a promising paire...

Wow that’s a good one!!. Does he read this blog? You should send it to him!

Prof

[jaydeep]

Lee and Benoit lost in a close match against the French pair ... Lee and Benoit won the first set in the tie-break but after that, the French pair won next two sets.

At $77.8K+H Mouratoglou Open 2019, Sophia Antipolis (Biot), France

[SF] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Benoit Paire (FRA) l (WC) Enzo Couacaud (FRA)/ Tristan Lamasine (FRA) 76(4) 67(2) 5-10

[jaydeep]

Leander played in the qualifying of the Barcelona Open with Benoit ... They started with a comeback upset win over the 2nd seeds ... But in the final qualifying, they lost against a local wildcard pair in close straight sets.

At € 2.7M Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell 2019, Spain

[Q1] Leander Paes (IND)/ Benoit Paire (FRA) bt (2) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 46 64 10-7

[Q2] Leander Paes (IND)/ Benoit Paire (FRA) l (WC) Roberto Carballes Baena (ESP)/ Jaume Munar (ESP) 67(3) 57

[jaydeep]

This week, Lee is playing with Garcia-Lopez in the French challenger and they r facing Arneodo and Nys.

At € 137K+H Aix en Provence Challenger 2019, France

[R1] Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Romain Arneodo (MON)/ Hugo Nys (MON)

[jaydeep]

Lee and Garcia-Lopez lost in straight sets against Arneodo and Nys.

At € 137K+H Aix en Provence Challenger 2019, France

[R1] Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Romain Arneodo (MON)/ Hugo Nys (MON) 46 46

[vparam]

Any idea why Leander hasn't played since US Open? Wasn't sure if he is injured is just trying to figure out if he wants to continue playing and is contemplating retirement. He has also now dropped out of top 100 for the first time in 19 years.

[S_K_S]

The announcement has arrived.....



Would be great to catch him on his farewell tour. Some of his most ardent folllwers are on this forum so no doubt there will be some memorable contributions on that hashtag from this group.

[knarayen]

Wow this will be a memorable farewell year for our very own modern legend. Let’s cheer him on one last time!!!

Prof

[jayakris]

This will be fun for the whole year. Thank you Lee for everything!!

[jaydeep]

Yes, thanks a lot Lee for amazing memories and roller-coster.

[PKBasu]

Thank you for the memories, Leander! Most of us joined Jay's TennisIndia bandwagon soon after Leander won that singles bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics -- the first Indian medal at the Olympics since the hockey gold at the depleted Moscow Olympiad of 1980, and the first individual medal for India in 40 years (and also the second-ever individual medal for India!).

And of course, Leander has given us so much to cheer for in the subsequent years -- and also in prior years, especially in India colours. Davis Cup victories over France (on clay in Frejus, where he beat #16 Boetsch and ex-FO finalist Leconte), on grass over Goran Ivanisevic and Wayne Ferreira, and numerous other spectacular triumphs. Along the way, he was the only Indian to win an ATP singles title since 1990, and of course he compiled a career 1-0 singles record against both Pete Sampras and Roger Federer! And he won a career Grand Slam in both doubles and mixed doubles. The greatest combined singles & doubles career that any Indian has had in the Open era. (Vijay had the best pure singles career, followed closely by Ramesh Krishnan, and I'd say Leander was third in singles although Somdev's career high ranking was a bit higher: LP won an ATP singles title, and an Olympic singles bronze -- peerless).

The farewell tour should be fun, but Leander will need a lot of farewell wildcards early in the year, including at the Australian Open. I hope those will be forthcoming, so that we can really enjoy a great farewell ride. He will also need good partners all along the way.

[sameerph]

This is an article on Leander on considering if his one last roar will be longer one and if he will delay his retirement due to olympic postponement-

Olympic delay might give Leander Paes another year on the circuit