No Indian has ever gone beyond semifinals of Singles competition of any Grand Slam Tennis tournament. No Indian has ever been ranked in top 10 in Singles rankings. Currently, there is no Indian player in top 100 too. Lender Paes and Mahesh Bhupati, on the other hand have won 21 grand slam doubles titles between them. Paes just recently collected his 10th title at US Open when he won in an emotinally charged encounter against Bhupati-Knowles combination.
How can one explain the Indian Success in doubles vis-a-vis lacklustre show in singles? India always had good doubles combinations. Premjit Lal - Jaydeep Mukharjee was among the best in the sixties. Amritraj brothers too excelled in Davis Cup matches. In the last thirty years India could produce just two world class singles players - Vijay Amritraj and Ramesh Krishnan, both of whom promised much but rarely delivered. Leander too, started off his singles career with a lot of promise, even winning Olympic Bronze medal. But, probably realising that his chances in singles are limited, Paes and Bhupati turned to doubles for better financial prospects. In early part of this decade, they formed a potent combination, and even now, advancing age notwithstanding, both are in top teams with their respective partners.
Top international Singles players rarely indulge in doubles play. With exception of McEnroe and Edberg, none of the top ten players in last two decades ventured in doubles. That leaves the field open for lesser players to thrive. If you look at the successful doubles players, the Woodies, the Blacks, Brians, Sanchez brothers, none of them were top-notch singles players. Success of McEnroe with Peter Fleming in Eighties shows that exceptional Singles player can excel at doubles too. Recently Roger Federer too also underlined this by winning Olympics doubles title. Even in the ladies the Williams sisters, both brilliant Singles players, are combining effortlessly in doubles too.
Indian media is going ga-ga over the Grand slam achievements of Paes, Bhupati (even Sania who won mixed doubles with Mahesh at Australian Open). But how significant are these achievements -Tennis wise? How do the ten titles of Paes compare with fifteen of Roger Federer? The answer is for everybody to find out!
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