5 of the biggest feuds in Indian sporting history

1) Leander Paes vs Mahesh Bhupathi

Dubbed the ‘Indian Express’, the pair won three Grand Slams in as many years and were among the best in the game

Once known as ‘The Indian Express’ – Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi were a brilliant doubles team which was always counted among the favourites to win a Grand Slam duing their heyday. 3 Grand Slam doubles titles in 3 years stand testimony to the fact. But Indian tennis’ golden pair split after a bitter feud developed between Paes and Bhupathi which resurfaced often.

In fact, they first officially announced their split in 2006 after winning the Doha Asian Games gold in doubles. In fact Bhupathi announced their pairing as a tragedy while announcing the decision to split. He went on to accuse Paes of belittling him with remarks and said, “I am definitely not as flamboyant as Leander is with the media but am as passionate about playing for India.

The million-dollar question is the Olympics in 2008. Leander tells the media that he would love to play with me at the Olympics; five minutes later he mentions to an acquaintance that my career will be over in six months.”

In fact, Bhupathi, Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna had all asked for Paes to be removed as Captain in 2008 which was not heeded by the AITA.

Though the pair played together again in 2008 Olympics where they lost out in the quarterfinals, the rift between them was not to be bridged. It flared up again in 2012 when Sania Mirza said she would prefer to play with Bhupathi rather than Paes in the London Olympics but was forced to partner Paes after the AITA intervened. Meanwhile, Paes had to partner Vishnu Vardhan in the men’s doubles after both Bhupathi and Bopanna refused to play with him. Bhupathi would go on to accuse Paes of lying to him on several occassions.

They last played together for India in a Davis Cup tie against South Korea in 2016 but there were no signs of the relationship being mended. It was sad that things came to this between 2 of India’s greatest sportspersons.