Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Sumit Nagal make it a memorable event.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Indian tennis players made their mark on this year’s Wimbledon tournament with aplomb, with living legend Leander Paes, current it-girl Sania Mirza, and young up-and-comer Sumit Nagal all swinging their way to doubles titles with their respective partners at the All England Club over the weekend.
While Roger Federer barely missed out on adding an eighth Wimbledon championship to his overflowing trophy cabinet and becoming the oldest-ever singles champion a month before turning 34, Leander Paes, at the age of 42, dominated en route to his fifth Wimbledon doubles title alongside Federer’s Swiss compatriot Martina Hingis.
The duo crushed Austria’s Alexander Peya and Hungary’s Timea Babos 6-1, 6-1 in just 40 minutes during Sunday’s mixed doubles final.
It was the second title in as many days for 1997 singles champion Hingis, who teamed up with Mirza to battle out a hard-earned, protracted victory over Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova, 5-7, 7-6, 7-5.
In one fell swoop, Mirza, 28, became the first Indian to win a women’s doubles Grand Slam title and also completed a “career Grand Slam” between doubles and mixed-doubles, meaning she has now won each of the four majors — Wimbledon (2015, doubles), U.S. Open (2014, mixed doubles), French Open (2012, mixed doubles) and Australian Open (2009, mixed doubles).
“Every kid that picks up a tennis racquet talks about winning Wimbledon or playing at Wimbledon one day, and I think I’m speaking for both of us: we feel privileged to be here,” Mirza stated, according Time magazine.
Completing the Indian trifecta of success at this year’s Wimbledon was 17-year-old Nagal, who became only the sixth Indian to win a Grand Slam junior title after winning the boys doubles trophy with Vietnamese Nam Hoang Ly on Sunday. The duo overcame the fourth seeds Reilly Opelka and Akira Santillan 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the title clash that lasted 63 minutes, according to The Times of India.
“I never thought I would do anything like this ever,” Nagal said, in an interview with NDTV. “Coming from such a big country like India, it’s even more special.”