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Leander Adrian Paes is an Indian professional tennis player who features in the doubles events in the ATP Tour and the Davis Cup tournament. Having won eight doubles and six mixed doubles Grand Slam titles and finishing as runner up in numerous other Grand Slam finals, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most respected contemporary doubles and mixed doubles players in the world. He is the oldest man to have won a grand slam. He is among the most successful professional Indian tennis players and is also the former captain of the Indian Davis Cup team. He is the recipient of India's highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, in 1996–1997; the Arjuna Award in 1990; and the Padma Shri award in 2001 for his outstanding contribution to tennis in India. Paes completed the career grand slam in men's doubles after winning the Australian Open in 2012. He is the sports ambassador of the Indian state of Haryana.
Apart from his fourteen Grand Slam victories in doubles and mixed doubles events, he is famous for his several memorable Davis Cup performances playing for India and also for winning a bronze medal for India in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. He also achieved the rare men's doubles/mixed doubles double in the 1999 Wimbledon. His consecutive Olympic appearances from 1992 to 2012 make him the first Indian and first & only tennis player to compete at six Olympic Games. After winning the mixed doubles Wimbledon title in 2010, Paes became only the second man to win Wimbledon titles in three different decades. In 2010, he joined the Board of Directors of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation co-founded by Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone to support talented athletes from India in winning Olympic medals. Apart from the ATP circuit, he also plays in World TeamTennis for the Washington Kastles, being on the 2009, 2011 and 2012 championship teams. The 2011 and 2012 Kastles are the only team to complete an undefeated season at 16–0 and the Kastles did it in back to back years and have not lost a match since the last match of the regular season in 2010. He was named Male MVP for 2009 and 2011 for all of World Team Tennis.
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