Grand Slam Champions Martina Hingis and Leander Paes at the RWITC - By Vivek Jain
Posted on - 04 Mar 2015
Grand Slam Champions Martina Hingis and Leander Paes at the RWITC
By Vivek Jain
In a rare but most pleasant occurrence, the recent Australian Open mixed doubles champions, our very own Leander Paes and Martina Hingis were at the RWITC this morning.
A call from Leander’s publicist, whom I know well, on their interest to come riding, made this possible. Martina has a passion for horses in addition to her tennis skills and the little I saw of her on horse-back bore adequate testimony to that. Her partner David who was present told me that sometime back she fell of a horse, broke several teeth, but still went on to play a Masters’ event in Zurich, days later!
Leander was all humility, grace and charm, with no attitude of a 15 time Grand Slam champion, and perhaps one of the finest athletes India has ever produced. “I’m excited to be here”, as he mounted one of Mr.Suresh Tapuriah’s horses, who helped with the arrangements, and was a bit more tentative than Martina, who seemed to enjoy it immensely. “Martina will be my partner for all the Slams this year. I will play in all the Four Slams and upto 8 Masters events, that’s all”, when queried of his schedule for the year. A breakfast at the Amateur Riders’ Club followed for an interview, but which, sadly I missed due to another engagement.
I did ask both to come to the weekend races but they leave Mumbai in the next few days, “But I will surely come back to ride and come to your races” added Leander. A sportsman to the core, it was easy to see why he is such a champion, on and off the tennis courts. As the icing on the cake he asked me to pose with him and Martina with the Australian Open Trophy they had just won. “Come to Wimbledon to see me play” and that’s an offer I won’t refuse!
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