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Paes targets one more Grand Slam title, Olympic doubles medal
Chennai, January 1, 2012
Tennis player Leander Paes addressing a press conference on the eve of ATP World Tour Chennai Open, in Chennai on January 1, 2012. UNI PHOTO
Former world No 1 and current world no 8 doubles player Leander Paes has his targets firmly set on winning an Olympics doubles medal at London in the latter half of the season and before that another Grand Slam doubles title.
"I go into the season in two phases. The season is quite long. The first part is the ATP tour which is very long. The players, in fact, need a longer off season," the affable star of Indian tennis said at a press conference ahead of the 2012 Chennai Open which kicks off here tomorrow.
Paes, who will be partnering the singles top seed Janko Tipsarevic in the doubles main draw for the first time as the number three seed, said, "I could not get my partner (Roddick) Stepanik. He was away in Brisbane, but Tipsarevic is a formidable player in doubles too."
"Tipsarevic has won a doubles title in Chennai. I am playing with him for the first time. Hope I can get some rhythm with him soon," Paes said.
Paes observed that last year he did not win a Grand Slam and therefore he was hoping to win one this season.
"It would be fantastic to win a doubles medal in Olympics, having come close to it three times, after I won a medal in the singles at Sydney," he hoped.
"The second season on the tour is the summer when you get to play the French Open, the Wimbledon and then the US Open. This time we have the Olympic Games," he said.
"You have to be really injury-free to be going through the tour. Fortunately, I have never had a major injury so far in 20 years of my career," Leander, who has 47 ATP Tour doubles titles under his belt, observed.
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