The Great Indian Bromance

The iconic Indian tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi has reunited — this time for a docu-series that takes us inside the pulsating highs and the perilous lows of the decorated Lee-Hesh partnership

- Alshaar Khan

Circa 1990. Colombo, Sri Lanka.

A 16-year-old Indian tennis prodigy, Leander Paes watches on, as another young countryman practices his booming backhand. He is a 15-year-old Mahesh Bhupathi, whose ‘monster backhand’ would soon come to instill fear in the minds of opponents worldover. The former walks up to the court. “Hi, I'm Leander,” he says.

“Hi, I'm Mahesh”, the other replies.

“Would you like to win Wimbledon?” Leander asks.

“You’re crazy!” Bhupati bursts out laughing.

“Yeah, I know, I’m crazy! But would you like to win Wimbledon?”

This tender conversation would become what was the origin of the Lee-Hesh bromance — a partnership that springboarded Indian tennis to global spotlight, in a “white man’s game”, and inspired generations of the country’s tennis players to come.

Paes and Bhupathi teamed up for the first time on-court in 1994, before grabbing ATP Challenger-level titles in 1995 and 1996. It wasn’t until 1997, though, that the duo would play together regularly. On home soil, they won their first ATP Tour title together at the Chennai Open, in April. Bhupathi’s mixed doubles French Open title (with Japan’s Rika Hiraki), later that year, also marked the first time an Indian had ever lifted a Grand Slam winners’ trophy.

In 1998, Bhupathi combined with Paes in men’s doubles to add six more ATP Tour titles to their list of honours, raising expectations of the first-ever all-Indian Grand Slam. The next year would bring them closer to that dream.