US OPEN

September 8, 1999

Leander Paes

Mahesh Bhupathi

USTA: Questions for Leander.

LEANDER PAES: Well, it's a fantastic feeling, being in the finals of yet another Grand Slam. Up till January of this year, we lost in quite a few semifinals. It was the next step that our doubles had to take, was bridging that gap from semifinals to finals. This year reaching four finals, having won two of them, there's one thing that we are looking at, is that those two games in January in the Australian Open were very, very important. We're delighted to be in another final. We have a good match coming up day after tomorrow. It's amazing how, you know, it could have been a humongous occasion, sitting right here in that final in Australia were different.

LEANDER PAES: That stat is something that I knew before I started playing with Mahesh. It was something that I wanted to set as a record. Being Indians, I wanted to set that trademark, doing it with another fellow Indian, getting to four Grand Slam finals, even maybe winning a Grand Slam. At that point in time when I thought about it, I thought it was a little farfetched goal. It's been a fantastic year. It's in the history books to an extent that not only are we in four Grand Slam finals, but in a way, we've proven to India that we can produce champions, even though it's only in doubles. We've proven to India that we can achieve levels and heights of this magnitude if you're willing to work hard enough and put things together.

LEANDER PAES: There are quite a few things that go into our doubles. But if there was one single-most quality I'd have to pull out, is that when we play together, we play with heart. We motivate each other. We keep each other in line. Even though this last year has not been a great year off the court, we've been thoroughly professional about it. We pull together when it comes to crunch time. We step up to another level. It's a special feeling that we have when we play together. This year we both played with different partners. We've talked about those situations. You know, I've had a bit of success with other partners. But when one plays with Mahesh, it's a special feeling.

LEANDER PAES: Well, I mean, I don't mind getting into it to a certain extent. I just feel that being in a position of being No. 1, where we are now, there's a lot of things that come along with that. One of the things that does come along with that is that people want to be on that bandwagon. Hence, you find Mahesh has his group and I have my group. In that, people want our individual best interests at mind. They want his interest, his group; my group wants mine. Subtly there's a communication barrier. That's something that we have to keep very solidly intact, because that's the main reason Mahesh and myself do well together, is that we communicate with each other, not necessarily with words, but with body language, with eye contact, with understanding of each other. There have been certain times this year that that communication was not right. That has been caused by outside influence. That's something that we're working on now. It's something that I hope gets better because that's what's going to look after the longevity of our career in doubles, as far as playing together goes.

LEANDER PAES: You've thought about that one, haven't you (laughter)? It won't be fair for me to comment on Mahesh's point of view. But as far as I'm concerned, the reason I took on Bob Carmichael was because he was one of the best doubles players in the world in his era. There were no ranking systems at that time, but I'm sure he was probably in the Top 5, if not the Top 3. Just his understanding of the game, his understanding of both Mahesh and me, is just spot-on. I missed him a lot of six months that he was away. It was unfortunate that he missed the French Open, but it's great to have him back for Wimbledon and again here. He's been a great source of inspiration. He's been, to a certain extent, the reason why - he helps us pull together. In these last couple months when things have not been going so good, everyone's had their version the story, and Bob has been one of the only few who has encouraged us to go straight directly to each other. So much so that he basically says, "You go directly to Mahesh." He tells Mahesh, "You go directly to Leander and sort this out." It's fantastic. As far as tennis goes, he understands the game of doubles like the back of his hand and he gives us some very good advice.

LEANDER PAES: Well, I think it's coming around the corner right now. At the Gold Flake Open till about three weeks before -- two weeks before the US Open; it was very, very tough. It was at its worst. I hope we've come around the corner and we keep things simple because that's what's needed. I mean, we both play fantastic doubles. We were the best of friends. We are the best of friends still. We just need to sort things out. We need to make sure we deal with each other directly and there's no miscommunication because I think that's all this was about. It was just misunderstanding and miscommunication.

LEANDER PAES: It was definitely not a test of going with different partners. The decisions that were made, both by Mahesh at the Italian Open to play with someone else, and by me in Indianapolis to play with someone else, was based on both our individual lack of physical fitness. I was sick just before the Italian Open, and Mahesh has been injured just before Indianapolis. That's all that was happening. There were a lot of people that read into that too much and had their own versions of the story. That's something that is not in our control. What's in our control is to make sure that we do come together as a unit, with our separate individual teams, and basically, to keep things very simple. That's something that is the most important for the next couple months and the next couple years. It would be a shame if things don't work out, but I'm positive that we are definitely going to make things work. We are making things work right now, not only on the court, but off as well, to preserve our doubles team.

LEANDER PAES: Very ironically, the Woodies are one of the teams that we admire. I believe they went through their share of troubles, as well. You try and learn bits and pieces of different people's artillery, as I call it. The Woodies have something special, and that's why they're one of the greatest doubles teams ever. You just learn from different people.

LEANDER PAES: Huh-uh.

LEANDER PAES: You know, it's funny. Every time I do step on the tennis court, I have the flag on me. I basically take great pride in representing my country. That's why my results have been better when I have played for the country versus when I've played for myself. The reason I started playing with Mahesh three and a half years ago was to basically prove that Indians can be champions. It's a real delight sitting here right now, even though what all we've been through this last year, for the last three and a half years, actually my word's coming true. Mahesh has worked very, very hard to make it happen. It's special. It's really special. I think that's something that gives us immense confidence, immense belief in each other, that we can come through whenever the chips are down or when we're tested, you know, to the limit, on and off the court, that we will eventually stick by each other. That's what makes us one of the best teams out here.

LEANDER PAES: We've played them quite a few times. We really enjoy playing them. They know our games well; we know theirs. It's going to be a fun match. The last time we played them, we didn't start too well at Wimbledon. We were down two sets to Love. We came back and won that in five. Hopefully, we get a little better start this time. We've got to be ready as soon as the bell rings to come out firing.

LEANDER PAES: The day before yesterday was fantastic when we played Gimelstob and Reneberg. Didn't start too well. We were down a set. They started saying, "Sare jahaan se achha Hindustan harnara." I remember the beginning of the third, we looked at each other, the song was chanting in the back. I had goose bumps on my arms. We made eye contact and knew we had to get it going. That was special.

LEANDER PAES: The song basically is not our national anthem, but it's like our folk song. The words translated from Hindi? To English, it doesn't come across as arrogance. It just comes across as unity. Basically what it says, "In the whole world, we will strive to be the best."

LEANDER PAES: Well, I don't like getting involved in politics. I try and stay as far away from it as I can. When I will be asked as to who I would like as captain, I will voice my opinion. Until then, I'm going to reserve anything I have to say about that. The speculations that a few people have made in regards to my lack of happiness with the present captain is untrue. I respect him a lot as a tennis player and as a person. When I'm asked as to who I want, it will just basically be based on what the best is for the Davis Cup team as to what I feel.

LEANDER PAES: Definitely can. I think, you know, it's funny. When you sit back and really look at the situation, it's just miscommunication, people misinterpreting as to what was going on. Mahesh believing a bit of it; I believing a bit of it, rather than us communicating and coming directly to each other. We've done that. We've sorted out our differences. The next step now is to keep that bond solid, is to communicate on a daily basis, on a weekly basis with each other, and get on with what's at hand, which is basically proving we're the best team out there. The competition out there is tough enough for us to work on rather than to have extra problems with it.

LEANDER PAES: I think so. I think that is the main thing that has to be worked on. It's a process that we're going through now. It's not going to be solved with one sitting. It's not going to be solved, you know, with just people saying, "Yes, I agree. No, I don't agree." It's going to be something that we have to practice week-in and week-out. It's something that both our teams have to be on the same page on a daily basis and have the team's best interest in mind, not both the individuals.

LEANDER PAES: Not yet, but it might come to that.

LEANDER PAES: Mate, I never do something unless I totally believe in it. I think about things a lot. I evaluate it. I really ask myself ten times over as to whether I'm going to give it everything I've got. I'm never sure of the result, but the one thing I know about myself, whatever is needed to be done for me to achieve my goal, I will do it. The belief that I had in Mahesh, as well, was the exact same. I knew that he had the ability, the talent, and more so the heart to be here.

LEANDER PAES: That's been a very tough task this past year, to try and balance both my singles and doubles. You ask me whether we sacrificed anything for it. That's one of the things that I feel I've had to sacrifice this year because it's almost impossible to perform week-in and week-out, 40 weeks a year, at singles and doubles. The end of last year, we chased No. 1. We ended up short. For the new year, we focused on the Grand Slams and trying to be No. 1 in the world. We're pretty happy right now that we're in a position that no one can really catch us till the end of the year. We have many points ahead. So the goal that we set last year has been achieved, but we still need to keep performing through the whole year. The end of Hartford, we'd realize our dream come through again. For the new year, it's something that I'm having to go through now, because I'm 26 years old, and I'm not getting any younger. I've achieved pretty much every goal that I've set out to achieve, whether it's been Davis Cup and the Olympics in singles, doubles now. One of my other goals is to try to get into the Top 50 in singles. That's something that I'm trying to incorporate into my doubles, as well, as to: How am I going to tackle that? There's a lot of work that has to be put in for me to achieve that. It's a tricky question to answer at this moment in time. I don't believe I have the answer. But where there's a will, there's a way. I'm sure I'll find a way.

LEANDER PAES: Not much (laughter). We lost a tough one. Now we see Don Johnson and Kim Po in the final. I must say Kimberly really played well that day. Had a couple breakpoints on her in the third set. She came out with flying colors. She aced me on one, which I don't want to talk about too much (laughter). She really played well. I'm glad to see them in the final.