There are a great many serious issues I want to write about this week but my time is scarce and I will leave it to the other bloggers to tackle them. Instead, I offer you terrific news out of New York from this past weekend. As most of you probably heard, Indian tennis player Leander Paes and his doubles partner Martin Damm (a Czech) won the U.S. Open Tournament.
Leander Paes won his first Men’s doubles title at a grand slam in five years by wresting the US Open crown with Martin Damm of the Czech Republic here on Saturday.
Paes and Damm scored a shock 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3 victory over second seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus in the final at the Flushing Meadows. Paes, 33, last registered a grand slam triumph in 2001 at the French Open with Mahesh Bhupathi, with whom he also won the French Open and the Wimbledon in 1999.
This is also Damm’s first ever major title. Paes has also won three mixed doubles titles in grand slams. Paes and Damm pocketed $400,000 as winner’s prize money. The lengthy opening set was a power struggle that stayed on serve to force a tiebreak. [Link]
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p>Paes’ previous Grand Slam victory came at Wimbledon in 2003 where he won the mixed doubles championship partnering with tennis goddess Martina Navratilova. As you can see from the pictures below, when you got love for your teammate(s) you are nearly impossible to beat. Congrats to Paes and Damm!
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“I can’t quit you.” |
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Just Do It. |
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Let the cameras roll on. |
Leander has set a great example..coming back from serious illness (operation for brain lesion) and winning the grand slams.
caption 1: “EEk! A spider”
Caption 2: “Babykins make a poo!!?”. “huh! this is humiliating. we’re out of here. “.
Caption 3: kamasutra XIV – the advanced positions
Caption 4: “Kiss me you fool”. “But no tongue”. “uunh”.
Paes is India’s duracell bunny. Hey, how about some Martina + Paes pictures?
That would be so gay.
So… when is his D-List acting career scheduled to start?
I always wondered….Bhupathi and Paes playing together won three majors…..why did they stop playing together? Was there some type of scandal between them?
Congrats to both Paes and Damm I thought Bhupati and Paes stopped playing together after Paes got cancer or something in his brain. I am not sure…
Nah, Bhupati and Paes stopped playing together due to some “differences” which weren’t ever made public.
It was a big deal in India at the time since these guys were playing good doubles tennis and were ranked #2 for a while when they decided to go their seperate ways.
Sorry to be objectifying members of the male persuasion, but: Hubba. Those pix are hot.
paes and bhupathi have almost single-handedly kept india alive in davis cup recently. shame they broke up their partnership. not sure, but i think it was paes/bhupathi who pioneered (or at least made it more common) the chest bump on the tennis court. now you see the bryan brothers doing it as well.
Macaca celebration
At one point during the final there were only 150 folks in the audience. Of course, the Roddick-Youzhny match was going on at the same time, but 150? Where were all the desis?
Awesome play those two.
And yet, I think Sania mirza will benefit from all this somehow. (God knows she’s not playing worth anything to benefit from her play).
Snarkiness aside, its great to see some desi-shtyle happiness moves from the racquet weilding macaca.
Now that’s what they mean by a “love match” !
Paes and Bhupathi were the top pair in mens doubles tennis. The reached the finals of all the 4 grand-slams in ’99 (and won two in that year). Unfortunately, the “Indian Express” split due to “personal reasons”…but they two get together for Davis Cup, Asian games and other championships where they represent the country.
As for the chest bumps, Byran brothers tried to steal some thunder from Paes after this year’s Australian Open…but Paes’ reply was apt.
There was some animosity afterward, with Mike Bryan saying the brothers were unhappy to see Paes and Damm “steal” their chest-bump celebration, and Paes responding that the Bryans were “in diapers” when he and another partner, Mahesh Bhupathi, began performing the celebration in matches.
Paes will be partenering Sania Mirza for mixed dbls in Asian Games..and in the Hopman Cup too (still not confirmed). Looking forward to the chest bumps and macaca celebration 😉
brown_fob, thanks for pointing out those facts about Paes/Bhupathi. I thought it was quite well known that the duo were world number one for a while.
Gautham, Paes lost that game in four sets I believe, after leading by a set and 5-0 in the second. As much as I love Agassi now, his peevish conduct in that game irritated me.
US Open (1996), round of 64 – Agassi defeatead Paes 3-6 6-4 6-1 6-0
1996 Olympics (Atlanta) Semi Finals – Agassi def. Paes 7-6 6-3