The Leander-Mahesh Breakthrough!

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were the first Indian to bag a senior Wimbledon trophy. This came about in 1999 through the men’s doubles event. Many other doubles accolades have followed.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

Our champion doubles stars — Leander Paes,Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza — have experienced what it feels to win the title at Wimbledon, the Mecca of tennis.

Maybe, this time, it is the turn of Rohan Bopanna, who joined the elite club by winning the French Open mixed doubles title with Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada!

Of course, Ramanathan Krishnan made it to the Wimbledon men’s singles semifinals twice before losing to the eventual champions, Neale Fraser (1960) and Rod Laver (1961).

But, the Indian romance with the Wimbledon trophies started in 1999, when Leander and Mahesh followed up on their maiden Grand Slam triumph in the French Open, by beating Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands and Jared Palmer of the US, 6-7(10), 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final.

It may be stupid to ask whether it was a dream realised.

“Honestly, no,” says Mahesh.

Even as you grapple with the answer, he follows up, “It was a dream to play on centre court at Wimbledon, one day.Winningwas beyond a dream.”