Nagal needs more weapons, supreme fitness

MUMBAI: Leander Paes is a man with many hats, and he loves donning each one of them. When he is not busy striking winners in the doubles circuit, the 46-year-old finds time to guide and fine-tune the skills of younger players on the ATP Tour, be it India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan or Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 18-time Grand Slam champion is also the co-owner of Mumbai Leon Army, a franchise in the Tennis Premier League, which is an eight-team event featuring Indian players that will be held here in December. In the city on Sunday to pick his side at the auctions, the tennis legend spoke to Hindustan Times about how he has been playing just for himself lately and why he saw Sumit Nagal’s breakthrough season coming. Excerpts: of the basketball team, a father who is a sports medicine doctor and was an Olympic hockey champion, while I play tennis—is that we stand for fitness, health and achievement. Helping out the young boys and girls comes naturally to me, whether it’s in the Davis Cup or on the Tour. can now play for myself’. I can now play because I love pushing my mind and body at 46 to keep being the best I can be. That’s the fun part, really. After you win a junior doubles title (Nagal won 2015 Wimbledon boys’ doubles title), you’ve got to perform. And Sumit has kept on persevering. It’s not easy, especially with the amount of expense and hardships on the Tour.

I have massive respect for people who work hard, because I’ve been through it myself, sleeping in locker rooms and things like that. Another player who I have immense respect for is Ankita (Raina), who has kept going. For me, she is one of the fittest athletes that we have in India across all sports. Now, we need our boys and girls to go out there and win.