US media views Leander Paes' feat with little fanfare

Indian tennis star Leander Paes' feat of winning a Grand Slam doubles title at the US Open at 40, largely went unheralded in the US media with most giving just factual agency reports on the match.

The Wall Street Journal, however, in a longish blog report, took note of the fact that "For the 40-year-old Paes, it is his eight career Grand Slam men's doubles title and his third US Open championship".

"He's also won seven mixed doubles Slam titles and now has earned the distinction of having won a Grand Slam title in each of three decades. He also won the 1996 Olympic bronze medal in men's singles tennis."

The New York Times in a blog post on the match day Sunday listed "20 facts you may not know about one of India's greatest tennis players" in recognition of Paes' "20th year as professional at Flushing Meadows".

Topping the list: "During his partnership with Martina Navratilova towards the end of her career, he used to write inspirational messages for her and often drop them in her tennis bag."

Sacramento Bee, published from California's Silicon valley, home to a large number of Indian IT professionals, noted "Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek followed their upset of the Bryan brothers with a victory Sunday in the men's doubles final at the US Open."

Firstpost, an ethnic Indian paper published from the West Coast, wrote of "Leander Paes and India's very different tennis revolution", suggesting "If the big television networks around the world have their way, then doubles in tennis would quickly be forgotten."

"But while the rest of the world might look at doubles as basically a second rung competition, India doesn't do that - doubles gets covered in a big way in India's print and electronic media simply because of the number of players we have taking part in the competition," it wrote.

"Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi put doubles tennis on the map in India", it said, noting "the continued success" of Paes, who "has been around for 20 years now and has reached 30 Grand Slam finals".

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)