With a victory against China in the latest Davis Cup tie, Leander Paes registered his 43rd doubles win in the tournament.
Paired with Rohan Bopanna, the 44-year-old went past Italy’s Nicola Pietrangeli as the most successful doubles player in the tournament’s history.
With it, he also become the sixth player in ATP history to win 750 doubles matches. Paes’s doubles career at the Davis Cup spans nearly 28 years. His first victory came against Japan in 1990 with Zeeshan Ali as his partner. Ali, only three years older than Paes, retired in 1995.
Since his first win, Paes has partnered with nearly every major Tennis player, but his most notable Davis Cup partner was Mahesh Bhupathi. This partnership resulted in 25 victories, the fourth highest in Davis Cup history.
But despite many different playing partners, Paes has regularly maintained a winning record in the tournament.
One of the streaks is exceptionally remarkable. Between February 2003 to April 2012, Paes didn’t lose a doubles rubber at the Davis Cup. Although, not all these matches came in the world group, the highest tier in the tournament.
Max Mirnyi is among the few active players who could threaten Paes’s record, but at 40 the Belarusian has little time to catch-up.
Even if Mirnyi starts to win his doubles matches, Paes shows no signs of slowing down and probably will look to extend his record at the top.
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