At which edition of the olympic games did mahesh bhupathi and leander paes beat roger federer and yves allegro in doubles?

Clay courts have, traditionally, have not been a surface to make Indian tennis players feel at home. But yet the only clay-court major has brought them plenty of glorious moments. The French Open is where India won its first major and the latest Grand Slam title yet. From Mahesh Bhupathi’s breakthrough title in 1997 to Rohan Bopanna’s crowning glory in 2017, here are India’s success stories at Roland Garros. 1997: Mahesh Bhupathi, mixed doubles title with Rika Hiraki Mahesh Bhupathi became the Rika Hiraki, in 1997. It was the first time that the Indian, 23 then, was competing in mixed doubles at a major. “We were the last team to get into the draw because Hiraki was ranked No. 30 and I was ranked No. 52,” Mahesh Bhupathi told fellow tennis player Purav Raja during a lockdown video series last year. The hastily-formed pair took some time settling in. Though they started with a nervous three-set win in the first round, Bhupathi-Hiraki knocked out four seeded teams en route the final. In the title clash, they stormed past top seeds Lisa Raymond and Patrick Galbraith of the USA 6-4, 6-1. 1999: Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, men's doubles 1999 proved to be a landmark year in the young careers of Leander Paes and Bhupathi. The Indian duo made their mark in by reaching the men’s doubles final at all the four majors. Paes-Bhupathi became the first Indian pair to win a major. The ‘Indian Express’, as they were called, defeated Goran Ivanisevic and Jeff Tarango 6-2, 7-5 in the fi...

In an exclusive interview with Republic TV, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi explained the reason why they chose to act in a docuseries featuring the rift between them. Paes revealed that since they did not want to tell a 'candyfloss' 'sugar-coated' story, they chose to do a docuseries, BreakPoint, intending to put the blunt truth out to people. Paes believes the docuseries helped him get his 'younger brother' back While speaking to Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on 'Nation Wants To Know', Leander Paes revealed that the docuseries helped in the healing process as the series helped him get his 'younger brother' back. Paes added that even though they never really separated, they have far more conversations now than they had before. Paes also added that at times, he wished he just picked up the phone and dialled Mahesh Bhupathi as doing so would have avoided creating the rift between the two. Similarly, Bhupathi said that he could have given Paes a hug to showcase their love for each other. Leander Paes partnered alongside Mahesh Bhupathi 'out of will' While speaking to Arnab, Leander Paes revealed the reason for him wanting to partner with Mahesh Bhupathi in the first place. Paes said, "The reason I started playing with Mahesh is because I really like him as a guy. He is very different than me. I am different than him. We have different perspectives on things, but there is some magic that we have." Paes went on to add that he played alongside Bhupathi...

India made its debut at the Summer Olympics in 1900. From the 1920 edition, it has not missed out on participation. At Tokyo 2020, India will be participating in 15 disciplines. Over a hundred athletes have already qualified and a few more, including the likes of Hima Das and Dutee Chand, are still vying for qualification. Let us look at the Indian athletes in individual sports with most appearances at the Olympics: Leander Paes (Tennis) The ace tennis player has participated in seven consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016. No other Indian has appeared as many times in the marquee sports competition of the world. In his second appearance in 1996 at Atalanta, he won a bronze medal in the men's singles category. After losing to Andre Agassi in the semifinals Since the Athens Olympics in 2004, he has been participating only in the doubles category. At Rio 2016, he teamed up with Rohan Bopanna but lost to the Polish pair of Marcin Matkowski and Łukasz Kubot in the first round. Mahesh Bhupathi (Tennis) five consecutive editions till the London Olympics in 2012. His best performance came at the Athens 2004 Olympics when he along with Paes finished fourth, after losing the third-place match to Croatian pair Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic. In his last appearance in 2012, he and Bopanna were ousted in the second round by French pair Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet. Abhinav Bindra (Shooter) India's only individual gold medal winner at the Olympics, five editions. His maiden appe...

That Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes are legends of doubles tennis is something that goes without saying. The Indian duo dominated the doubles tour as a unit at one point. However, the fact that they never won an Olympic medal together still seems hard to digest. Paes did win a bronze medal, but that came in the men’s singles draw at the 1996 Olympics. He came close to winning a doubles medal on two occasions – first with Ramesh Krishnan in 1992 and then with Bhupati in 2004. Indeed, it is the latter that is seen as the biggest ‘what if’ in India’s Olympic history. As the Tokyo Olympics draw closer, let us look back at the time Lee-Hesh came so near but were so far at the end. It is impossible to think about Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes without remembering their rocky equation over the years. The two were dynamite both on and off the court. In 1999, the two reached the finals of all four Grand Slams in the men’s doubles draw, winning the French Open and Wimbledon. They also won at Roland Garros in 2001. However, a lack of decent results thereafter led to the splintering of the pair. Yet come 2004, they decided to give their partnership another shot. The hope, of course, was that they would be able to lead India to a medal. At the time, the pair’s success as a duo was recent enough that hopes were running high on the two. This is despite the fact that at Sydney, when paired together at their world beating best, they got knocked out in the second round. Still, the two see...

"We have received several enquiries regarding applications for 'wild cards' for the Olympic tennis event and I wanted to take this opportunity to once more clarify that 'wild cards' do not exist in the Olympic tennis event," ITF secretary general Juan Margets said in a letter to the AITA. "In previous Olympic Games, the ITF had a degree of discretionary oversight on the allocation of final qualification places (ITF Places), which might have been considered similar to the concept of wild cards in other events," Margets wrote. Also read: "Now, in line with International Olympic Committee requirements, this has changed for Rio 2016. While final qualification places remain, they are now allocated strictly according to the criteria outlined in the qualification system. The ITF has no discretionary power to allocate final qualification places and consequently national associations cannot apply for final qualification places (or wild cards)," he added. Both Leander and Bhupathi are too low down the world doubles rankings to qualify for the Rio Olympics either individually or as a team. So, the only hope of them playing together at Rio was to get a wild card for them. Also read: Leander will now have to improve his rankings till the French Open, which is the cut-off mark, and hope to combine with Rohan Bopanna. But Leander and Rohan do not exactly enjoy a cordial relationship. The run-up to the London Olympics was marred by an ugly controversy as both Rohan and Sania Mirza express...

• • • • Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna went in cold into the Rio 2016 Olympics, says Mahesh Bhupathi Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna went in cold into the Rio 2016 Olympics, says Mahesh Bhupathi Mahesh Bhupathi has said that Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna's duo was definitely under-prepared at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna crashed out after losing in straight sets against Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski. Ace doubles player Leander Paes and his big-serving partner Rohan Bopanna did not practise or play enough together to give themselves a decent chance to win a medal in the men’s doubles event at the Rio Olympic Games, said the former’s ex-partner Mahesh Bhupathi. “The (men’s) doubles team was definitely under-prepared, in fact there no preparation – that’s the right word. They did not practise, did not play any matches together. Even when Leander and me were not playing on tour in 2004 and 2008 (Olympic Games in Athens and Beijing), we always came together, played a couple of tournaments together. That’s what the Olympics demands,” said Bhupathi here at the Khar Gymkhana. Paes, who played in his seventh Olympics, and Bopanna crashed out after losing their first round match in straight sets against the Polish pair of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski. “We (he and Paes) won three hundred matches on (ATP) tour, (but) we (still) made an effort to do it. This time they went in cold. Obviously one (doubles) match against a dilapidated Korean Davis Cup team is ...

When Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi became the first Indian pair to win a Grand Slam at the 1999 French Open, it was a historic achievement celebrated across the country. The final decade of the last millennium had not seen much success for India as a sporting nation and in tennis, the dearth of success after the Krishnans and the Amritrajs was clearly evident. Paes and Bhupathi had already established themselves as top players in the 1990s – Paes with an Olympic medal in 1996 and Bhupathi with the first Grand Slam won by an Indian at the 1997 French Open. But an all-Indian pair winning a Major together, and starting a season in such a dominant fashion was unprecedented. They became the first pair to reach the finals of all Grand Slams in a year in the Open era, winning French Open and Wimbledon as top seeds. Yet, as incredible as the feat was, in a way it felt almost inevitable because of how consistent the “Indian Express”, as they were dubbed, had been the last couple of years. It was a gradual progression. They won six ATP tour titles in 1997, reached three Grand Slam semi-finals in 1998 and won two Grand Slam titles in 1999, by then Paes and Bhupathi became the poster boys of Indian sport, raking in the audience and the money. Considered one of the most attuned men’s doubles pairs in tennis, Paes’s wizardry at the net was well complimented by Bhupathi’s excellent play from the baseline. And who could forget their famous well-orchestrated chest-bumps after winning a ...

MUMBAI: Many years ago, This "brotherhood" between the two Indian tennis icons, who were the first doubles team from the country to win at Wimbledon in 1999, is what the two tennis legends have revisited through ZEE5's non-fiction series "Break Point". Paes said the audience will get to see a faithful representation of their journey through the series, directed by filmmaker couple "We created a brotherhood. And through ‘Break Point', you get to see the journey of two young Indian boys and how we conquered the world of tennis, won Wimbledon and became number one in the world," Paes told PTI in an interview. Besides the Wimbledon championship that they won in 1999, Paes and Bhupathi also won two French Open titles in 1999 and 2001. Through "Break Point", Paes said he re-lived all the games that he and Bhupathi played together including the several "One of my favourite memories is when I was 16-year-old playing in Sri Lanka, and Mahesh was 15, playing at the same Asian championships. So when I saw him, I had an intuition that we could win Wimbledon together and we could be number one in the world. "So I watched him play for about 15 minutes and when he came off the court he had a big smile on his face and I shook his hand. I said, 'I am Leander.' and he said, 'I know and I have been following you'. And then I said, 'Thank you, but would you like to win Wimbledon?'" Paes said. He recalled that Bhupathi was taken aback by what he said and started laughing. "He said, 'You're cra...