The unhurried, mirth-filled chit-chat triggered by the birth of a new year was hard to miss at the media lounge where Leander Paes was slated to meet the press on Sunday.
That the interaction began about half an hour behind schedule was but a minor irritant to the scribes.
When Paes eventually arrived, the question-answer volleying was at its smoothest.
The veteran began by outlining his plans for the year, placing a premium on the Olympics and the Grand Slams even as he wants to pick and choose other tournaments.
Priorites
“This is a very long season. It's going to be a tricky summer as we have the French Open, followed by Wimbledon, then the Olympics and then within two or three weeks, the US Open. That's definitely a time when I need to peak and stay injury-free”.
Paes also nurses a dream of winning a doubles Olympics medal, having already secured the bronze in the singles category at Atlanta in 1996.
“There will be nothing like winning a doubles medal. I've come pretty close to it in the past, including with Ramesh Krishnan at the Barcelona Olympics (when they reached the quarterfinals)”.
Phenomenal athlete
The 38-year-old showered rich praise on Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who will partner him in the doubles during the Aircel Chennai Open. “He's a phenomenal athlete and is in the top 10 (rankings) now. He's a great guy and, although I haven't played with him much, we hope to do well”.
Non-committal
Paes was non-committal when asked about his choice of partner for the Olympics. “That's a question you will have to ask the AITA (All Indian Tennis Association). I am not going to answer it right now”.
On the need to nurture young players, he felt they needed greater encouragement in taking Indian tennis forward.
“Somdev (Devvarman) is a great kid. We need to focus on how much support we are going to give him. Yuki (Bhambri) is a phenomenal talent.
“He was world junior number one; not many Indian players have that talent.
“But we've not heard as much of him as we would've liked to. We need to nurture six to eight players. We need more players who can keep India in the Davis Cup World Group. We've always played some of the best tennis (in Davis Cup) regardless of our ranking.”
