Press Trust of India
Kolkata, July 22: Tennis icon Leander Paes aspires to win not only a second Olympics medal but also obliterate the Ramanathan Krishnan’s Davis Cup record of most singles win for India. The 43-year-old legend is currently preparing for his record seventh appearance at Rio next month.
“He (Lee) has a few goals ahead of him, and one of them is to win a doubles medal in the Olympics. The other two are winning the World Doubles Championships and to get past Ramanathan Krishnan’s most (50) singles win,” his father Dr Vece Paes stated here Friday. Incidentally Vece was a member of the Indian hockey team which finished with bronze in the 1972 Munich Games.
When pointed out that Leander does not play singles anymore, Vece said, “Yes, it’s been a long time, but he’s a man who has his own goals. He wanted to play singles at the Davis Cup in Chandigarh, as it was a dead rubber. But eventually he pulled out so that his focus remains firmly on the Olympics.
Leander has 48 singles wins apart from 42 doubles victories for a Davis Cup tally of 90 succesful matches. Krishnan had 50 singles and 19 doubles victories.
In spite of the controversy surrounding the pairing of Leander and Rohan Bopanna for the upcoming Rio Games, his father is not worried.
“Whatever has happened is passé now. Both are professionals and both will act accordingly. They are the two best doubles pairs in the world and I am hopeful, they will win a medal,” asserted Vece.
