Early career (1991–1997) Paes first won titles at the Junior
US Open and the Junior Wimbledon. He turned professional in 1991. He became number 1 in the world junior rankings. In 1992, he reached the quarter finals of the doubles event in the
1992 Barcelona Olympics with
Ramesh Krishnan. At the
1996 Atlanta Olympics he beat
Fernando Meligeni to win the
bronze medal, the first Indian to win an individual medal since
KD Jadhav won bronze at the 1952
Helsinki Olympics. Paes cited the match as one of his greatest performances, in part because his wrist was severely injured. He was awarded the highest sporting honor by the government of India, the
Khel Ratna in 1996. His first successful year in the
ATP circuit came in 1993, when he partnered with
Sébastien Lareau to reach the US Open doubles semifinal. After a moderate season in 1994, he reached the quarter-finals of the
1995 Australian Open doubles with
Kevin Ullyett. From 1996, he partnered with fellow Indian
Mahesh Bhupathi. Their first year was not successful, especially in the Grand Slams, reaching the round of 32 only at Wimbledon. 1997 proved to be a much better year for the team, reaching the US Open semifinals. Paes climbed the doubles ranking from no. 89 at the beginning of the year to no. 14 at year-end. That year he made his best singles performance in a Grand Slam, losing in the third round of the
1997 US Open to
Cédric Pioline after beating
Carlos Costa and
Arnaud Boetsch.
Rise in doubles (1998–2002) Paes/Bhupathi grew stronger in 1998, and reached the semifinals of three Grand Slams, the
Australian Open, the
French Open and the US Open. Leander Paes had two of his biggest singles results. The first one came by winning his only ATP singles title at Newport, and the second was beating
Pete Sampras 6–3, 6–4 at the New Haven ATP tournament in their only meeting. In 1999, the duo reached the finals of all four Grand Slams, winning Wimbledon and the French Open, becoming the first Indians to win a doubles event at a Grand Slam. Paes teamed up with
Lisa Raymond to win the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon. The year marked his ascent to the no. 1 doubles ranking. The following year, Paes partnered with
Sébastien Lareau for the Australian and
Jan Siemerink for the French, losing in the first round on both occasions. Paes again teamed with Bhupathi for the US Open, but lost in the first round again. The duo had a disappointing second round exit to Australian duo of
Todd Woodbridge and
Mark Woodforde at the
Sydney Olympics. Paes was given the honor of carrying the
Indian Flag at the opening ceremony. In spite of winning the French Open in 2001, Bhupathi/Paes had first-round exits in the other three Grand Slams. Paes was awarded the
Padmashri by the
Government of India in 2001. The duo of Paes and Bhupathi won the gold medal at the
2002 Asian Games in Busan. In 2002, Leander paired up with
Michael Hill with moderate success. pairing up in a mixed doubles event
2003–2007 After 2003 Paes increasingly focused on doubles. He won the mixed doubles events at the Australian and Wimbledon with
Martina Navratilova, both in 2003. Weeks later, Paes was admitted to the
MD Anderson Cancer Center for a suspected brain tumour that was later found to be
neurocysticercosis, a parasitic brain infection. He had to miss the US Open, but recovered by the end of that year. In the 2004
Athens Olympic Games, he paired up with Bhupathi, failing again at the semifinals stage. His next Grand Slam success was in the
US Open doubles event in 2006 with
Martin Damm. Paes led the Indian tennis team at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 and won two golds in the men's doubles (with Bhupathi) and mixed doubles (with
Sania Mirza). Paes maintained his doubles ranking in the top 20 in the world between 2005 and 2007. With wins in the Rotterdam and Indian Wells, Paes took his doubles tally to 38.
2008 Paes/Bhupathi took part in men's doubles at the 2008
Beijing Olympics. They were eliminated in the quarter-finals by
Roger Federer and
Stanislas Wawrinka, who went on to win gold. With
Cara Black he won the 2008 US Open mixed doubles title.
2009 In 2009, he won the French Open and US Open Men's doubles titles with
Lukáš Dlouhý and was the runner-up in mixed at the US Open.
2010 He began the 2010 season in good form, again winning the
Australian Open mixed doubles title with
Cara Black. This was the pair's third consecutive Grand Slam final and the fourth overall.
2012 Paes started the year pairing with
Radek Štěpánek winning the Australian Open men's doubles beating the Bryan brothers and completed his Career Grand Slam in men's doubles. Paes then went on to complete at hattrick of wins at the Miami Masters with his 3rd consecutive win pairing with Štěpánek. Paes and Štěpánek's
2012 Wimbledon tournament ended when the duo lost to
Ivan Dodig and
Marcelo Melo. Paes and
Elena Vesnina reached the finals of the Wimbledon mixed doubles after beating
Bob Bryan and
Liezel Huber, 7–5, 3–6, 6–3 on 7 July. Paes and Štěpánek advanced to the finals at the 2012 US Open after their Spanish opponents,
Marcel Granollers and
Marc López, retired because of injury. However the duo lost in the final of US Open 2012 to the
Bryan brothers. Paes and Štěpánek began the ATP World Tour Finals with a win against Pakistan's
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Dutchman
Jean Julien Rojer, 6–4, 7–5. and avenged their loss to the Bryans and topped their group with 3 wins. They made it to the semifinals, where they were eliminated by eventual runners-up Bhupathi and
Rohan Bopanna.
2013 Paes/Štěpánek won the 2013 US Open, defeating
Alexander Peya and
Bruno Soares 6–1, 6–3. This was Paes' 3rd US Open men's doubles title and 14th Grand Slam title. He became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title and the first ever aged above 40 years. In January 2014, the
Government of India announced its 3rd Highest Civilian Award
Padma Bhushan for Paes.
2014 Paes won the
2014 Malaysian Open men's doubles with
Marcin Matkowski. and later went on to make the semi-finals of Wimbledon in men's doubles with Štěpánek
2015 Paes started his 25th season on the ATP World Tour by partnering with Klaasen to reach the Chennai final, where the team lost to Lu/Marray. On 17 January, he won his 55th tour-level title in his 93rd final at Auckland, again with Klaasen. The team recorded three-match tie break victories en route to the final. With the win, Paes had won at least one trophy every season since 1997. On 1 February, Paes captured his seventh Grand Slam mixed doubles crown at the
2015 Australian Open with
Martina Hingis. It was his 15th major crown overall and his third mixed doubles triumph at Melbourne Park. The pair beat defending champions
Daniel Nestor and
Kristina Mladenovic in the final. As No. 7 seed with Klaasen in men's doubles, Paes lost to eventual champions Bolelli/Fognini in the second round. At the
2015 French Open, Paes started a new partnership with
Daniel Nestor. The pair crashed out in the third round; however, Paes became just the seventh male player in Open Era to complete 700 doubles wins. At
Wimbledon 2015, Paes again teamed up with Hingis to win the mixed doubles championship. The final 6–1, 6–1 score against fifth seeds Alexander Peya and
Tímea Babos came after only 41 minutes. Paes/Nestor reached the third round. By winning his 4th Wimbledon
mixed doubles title, Paes shared the record for men's titles in the open era with
Owen Davidson. On 12 September 2015, Paes won the mixed doubles at the
2015 US Open with Hingis, defeating
Sam Querrey and
Bethanie Mattek-Sands in three sets.
2016 On 3 June 2016, Leander Paes completed his Career Grand Slam in mixed by winning the
2016 French Open with Hingis, thus joining an elite league of players. He broke Davidson's record for most Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. Paes qualified for the
2016 Summer Olympics in Men's doubles and partnered with
Rohan Bopanna. They lost in the first round to the Polish pair of
Marcin Matkowski and
Łukasz Kubot. He later paired up with
Andre Begemann, where they reached the final in the
Winston-Salem Open. This pair lost in the first round of the
2016 US Open. He turned up for the Davis Cup against Spain with
Saketh Myneni, losing to
Rafael Nadal and
Marc López in 4 sets.
2017 Paes played in the 2017 season with his 111th partner,
André Sá. The duo lost to the Indian pair of
Purav Raja and
Divij Sharan in the first round of
Aircel Chennai Open in straight sets. With this loss, Paes moved down to 64th in doubles ranks. Though India won their
Davis Cup tie against
New Zealand, Paes and his last-minute partner,
Vishnu Vardhan, lost to the New Zealanders
Artem Sitak/
Michael Venus. Paes and
Rohan Bopanna were kept as reserves by new, non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi for the tie against
Uzbekistan. Eventually, Paes was dropped from the final four, which created controversy. Paes reached the semis of the
Dubai Open and at
Delray Beach. Paes then played a series of challenger events, never getting his ranking above 49th. He played with
Adil Shamasdin,
Scott Lipsky, and
Purav Raja.
2018 Paes continued his partnership with Raja, losing the
Maharashtra Open in the first round to defending champions Bopanna/
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan. In the
Australian Open, Paes/Raja lost in the round of 16. Paes along with
James Cerretani finished as runner up in the
Dubai Open. Paes was recalled to India's Davis Cup squad to play against China. On 7 April 2018, Paes became the most successful player in Davis Cup history with his 43rd doubles victory. After going 0–2 down, Paes/Bopanna scripted India's comeback and in the end, India won the tie 3–2. After this, Paes skipped clay and grass court seasons. Paes was selected for the
2018 Asian Games, but the day before the Games started, he opted out citing the lack of a doubles specialist to accompany him. Paes/Cerretani played in several Challenger tournaments, before losing in the first round of the
US Open. Paes also played Challengers with
Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela.
2019 Paes/Reyes-Varela started the 2019 season at the
Maharashtra Open. The duo lost a close quarter-final to the eventual champions, Bopanna/
Divij Sharan, 17–15 in a match tie-break. Paes/Reyes-Varela then finished as runners-up in the
Da Nang Challenger before losing in the first round of the
Australian Open. During the season, Paes made the semi-finals of three ATP 250 tournaments (Montpellier, Marrakesh and Lyon) with Benoit Paire. He become the oldest ATP Tour semi-finalist since 2006 when he reached the semi-finals of the Hall of Fame Championship with Marcus Daniell in July 2019.
Davis Cup Paes started his
Davis Cup career in 1990, when he partnered
Zeeshan Ali in doubles to beat the Japanese team in a five-set encounter. He played a key role on the Indian team that reached the World Group from 1991 to 1998. He was part of the
Indian team that reached the semifinals
1993 with wins against Switzerland and France, eventually losing to Australia. In singles, his major wins came against the French duo of
Arnaud Boetsch and
Henri Leconte in 1993,
Wayne Ferreira in 1994, and
Goran Ivanišević in 1995 when India defeated Croatia, beating
Jan Siemerink in 1996 to defeat Netherlands, and
Jiří Novák in 1997. He teamed up with Bhupathi to beat
Hiršzon/Ivanisevic of Croatia in 1995,
Damm/
Korda of the Czech Republic in 1997,
Massú/
Ríos of Chile in 1997, Broad/
Henman in 1998, and
Aspelin/
Björkman of Sweden in 2005. In 2007, Leander had three wins (two doubles and one singles) and no losses. In 1993, he defeated No. 25 Arnaud Boetsch in straight sets on clay. Paes defeated Henri Leconte in the same week, and although Ramesh Krishnan won the tie-breaker against Rodolphe Gilbert, it was Paes who put that match over the top. In 1994, he beat World No. 13
Wayne Ferreira in straight sets, but lost the overall tie.
Year-end finals Paes qualified for appeared with Bhupathi in six season finales. Paes played at the year-end championships with Bhupathi each year from 1997 to 2000, as well as in 2002 and 2011, reaching three finals. In 1997 they lost the final to
Rick Leach and
Jonathan Stark. They lost 1999 final to
Sébastien Lareau and
Alex O'Brien. In 2000, they lost the final to
Donald Johnson and
Pieter Norval. == Playing style ==