On the ATP tour, India has been probably best represented by its two stalwarts in the doubles game—Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. Leander was already a hero in India because of his Olympic Bronze medal winning effort at Atalanta in 1996 before the two of them decided to come together to play doubles in 1997.
This was, what started the rise of these two stars on the world doubles stage. They had a very successful partnership, and started to have comparisons with the legendary Aussie pair, the Woodies.
Dubbed the "Indian Express," their on-court camaraderie was something that the world took notice of. Their amazing chemistry led to them having their most successful year in 1999 when they created the record of reaching the finals of all four grand slams, the first time that happened in the Open Era, and managed to win the French Open and Wimbledon.
By the end of the year, they were ranked No. 1 in the world and the world predicted a long era of dominance by the Indian pair.
But that was not to be, in 2001, what started as a slight disagreement escalated into such a big conflict between the two players that they eventually decided against playing with each other. At the centre of the controversy seemed to be Bhupathi's coach, Enrico Piperno, though no one knows the exact reason for sure.
Ever since then, they have played with different partners, both becoming multiple Grand Slam champions with Leander having 12 Grand Slam titles and Bhupathi not being far behind with 11 titles. However, they have not been able to reach the heights and consistency of the "Indian Express" days.
To the credit of both the players, they have left their egos behind when it came down to playing for the country. They have a great 25-2 record in Davis Cup matches. Even in the Olympics they have come close to winning a medal twice.
In Athens 2004, they lost in the bronze medal playoff in a marathon match to the Croatian pair 6-7, 6-4, 14-16. In Beijing Olympics, they lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champions Federer and Wawrinka.
Amidst all this, there have also been unfortunate instances of public outbursts against each other, most notably by Leander in Doha Asian games when Leander publically questioned Bhupathi's attitude in playing for the country and Bhupathi leading the player's revolt against Leander's captaincy of the Indian Davis cup team in 2009.
However, lately, they seem to have talked to each other and made efforts to resolve their differences. They remain tight-lipped as to who took the initiative, but both of them seem to have put the past behind them now to team up for the ATP tour for the first time in many years. Both of them want to win the only Grand Slam doubles title missing from their resumes and who better to do it with than each other.
Although, they have decided to try out the arrangement till the Australian Open, the hopeful signal for the Indian fans is that they have not ruled out playing together even after the Australian Open is over. In the last eight years, they have only played a couple of ATP tournaments together just before the Olympics as practice.
But the getting back together of the "Indian Express" for a extended period might also help them win a Olympic Medal at London in 2012, a thing that has been expected of them for the last three Olympics, but unfortunately, they have fallen short each time. London would, in all probability be the last Olympics for the long careers of these two stalwarts. There is no doubt that they would like to go out on an absolute high.
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