Mahesh Bhupathi

By Rohit

Category: sports

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Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi, famously known as Mahesh Bhupathi, was born on June 7, 1974 at Chennai (the then Madras), India. He is one of the greatest Doubles lawn-tennis players of the world. His present home is at Bengaluru. The year 1995 saw him turn professional. He was the proud recipient of the “Padma Shri” award in the year 2001.

Davis Cup honors:

Mahesh Bhupathi became a favorite among Indian tennis-lovers, when he first represented India in the Davis Cup in the year 1995. During the tenure of eleven years from 1995 to 2006, Bhupathi has appeared in 46 Davis Cup matches, making India win 28 of those. 20 wins out of those 28 happened to be in the Doubles matches.

Asian Games:

Partnering Leander Paes, Bhupathi, emerged victorious in the Doubles category, at the Doha Asian Games in 2006.

Grand Slam career, so far:

1997: Bhupathi won the French Open in the Mixed Doubles category, partnering Rika Hiraki, against Patrick Galbraith and Lisa Raymond. This feat made Bhupathi, the first-ever Indian to emerge as the winner of a Grand Slam tournament.

1999: i) Teaming up with Leander Paes, Bhupathi clinched the Wimbledon title in the Men’s Doubles category, playing against Jared Palmer and Paul Haarhuis.

ii) The Bhupathi-Paes duo won the French Open title in the Men’s Doubles category, beating Jeff Tarango and Goran Ivanisevic.

iii) Partnering Ai Sugiyama, Bhupathi clinched the U.S. Open title, in the Mixed Doubles category defeating the Donald Johnson-Kimberly Po duo.

In this year, Bhupathi and Leander made it to the finals of each of the four Grand Slams, and was the first doubles team to do so. This was a rare feat never achieved in the Open Era and never achieved since 1952. In April this year, the Bhupathi-Paes duo, earned the prestige of becoming the World No. 1 Doubles team.

2001: Pairing Leander Paes, Bhupathi won the French Open title in the Men’s Doubles category, beating Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner.

2002: i) Teaming up with Max Mirnyi, of Belarus, Bhupathi got the U.S. Open title in the Men’s Doubles category, defeating Radek Stepanek and Jiri Novak.
ii) Partnering Elena Likhovtseva of Russia, Bhupathi again won the Wimbledon title, this time in the Mixed Doubles category, ousting the Daniela Hantuchova-Kevin Ullyett duo, in the finals.

2005: i) Bhupathi clinched another Wimbledon title in the Mixed Doubles category, pairing the experienced Mary Pierce and beating the Tatiana Perebiynis-Paul Hanley duo.

ii) Pairing Daniela Hantuchova, Bhupathi ensured his second U.S. Open title in the Mixed Doubles category, defeating Nenad Zimonjic and Katarina Srebotnik.

2006: Teaming up with the experienced Martina Hingis, Bhupathi won his first Australian Open title in the Mixed Doubles category, defeating Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva in the finals, in straight sets.
This was the sixth time Bhupathi won the Mixed Doubles Grand Slam and with his victory in the Australian Open, his career Grand Slam in Mixed Doubles was completed.

He has a total of ten Grand Slam titles under his belt.