Sports

Paes unhappy with Indian Davis Cup team’s position

Indian tennis ace Leander Paes is unhappy with the current state of the country’s Davis Cup team and believes it will take half a decade to raise its standard. The Indian Davis Cup team slipped to World Group II for the first time after losing 2-3 to Denmark earlier this month. Paes, who has won a record 45 doubles matches in Davis Cup, said, “I think it will take a few years for some talented players to come in the Davis Cup team.”

The decline of Indian tennis was evident at the Australian Open last month when for the first time since 2017, a singles player from India failed to make it to the qualifying round of a Grand Slam event. Olympic bronze medalist Paes told reporters, “I am very sad that we do not have a single player in the top 300 in the singles rankings. I don’t think that has ever happened.” Prajnesh Gunneswaran is currently the highest-ranked Indian in singles at No. 306 on the ATP list.

Paes said, “I have a lot of respect for all Indian players who are involved in a sport like tennis in which the cost of training and running (making a career) is very high.” He said, “99 percent of the games in tennis are played abroad. And it is not easy to survive in the circuit single-handedly. Zeeshan (Ali) and I used to sleep in the locker room as well because we didn’t have money to stay in hotels. To achieve that stage, I think it will take at least half a decade.

Right now it is very difficult to reach the semi-finals of the Davis Cup. Vaes Paes was a member of the bronze medal-winning team at the 1971 Hockey World Cup in Barcelona and the 1972 Munich Olympics. Paes, who campaigned for the Trinamool Congress in the Goa assembly elections last year, did not respond to questions related to politics. He said that he is currently busy with a ‘biopic’ which is related to this father-son duo. He revealed that it should be ready in 18 months.

Paes said, “Right now I am working on my script. I can’t say much about it right now. This story will tell how baba (father) won bronze medal in 1972 Olympic Games and some of you may know what happened there. This will be an inspirational story. Right now I am working on it and hopefully in 18 months you will get to see it.

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