In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mahesh Bhupathi formed a successful men's doubles pair in tennis with Leander Paes. The duo were ranked number one in the world in 1999, reaching the finals of all four Grand Slams and winning the French Open and Wimbledon trophies.
Despite all the success and titles the pair accumulated, discord was also growing among the long-time friends and they eventually went their separate ways in 2006, though they reunited again from 2008 to 2011. The upcoming Zee5 docu-series Break Point, co-directed by Nitesh Tiwari and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, captures the fraught relationship on and off court between Bhupathi and Paes.
In a telephonic group interview, Mahesh Bhupathi, who retired from professional tennis in 2016, discussed his motivation of getting together with former partner Paes to revisit a difficult time in their lives.
Bhupathi said both he and Paes had been approached to tell their story before, many times. “Why we decided now was because we heard Nitesh and Ashwiny were interested,” he told Cinestaan.com. “With their background on filmmaking, and actually their love for tennis, we just got immediate comfort and that’s how we put it together.”
The husband-and-wife filmmaking team had previously been to Wimbledon and had a lot of knowledge about the sport. In the past 18 months, Bhupathi and Paes were prepping and getting the docu-series off the ground.
The former number one doubles player admitted that it was tough to speak on camera, but “Nitesh and Ashwiny did an amazing job preparing us and we did trial runs on Zoom so that it was pretty free-flowing”.
During this time, Bhupathi also got to revisit his career in a way and see all the articles, images and footage of the matches he had played over the years. While many memories stood out, he singled out one match in particular at Wimbledon in 1999.
“I saw the entire match that we played at Wimbledon, the year we won it, the quarter-final match [against Alex O'Brian of the USA and Sébastien Lareau of Canada], which I had never seen before. It was a match that we were very close to losing, which would have obviously ended the Wimbledon run. But seeing a lot of the footage was nostalgic,” he said.
But besides all the happy moments like winning Grand Slams, Break Point will detail all the reasons why the pair broke up their successful partnership. Despite their personal acrimony, the pair switched off their differences once they got to the court. Their focus was always on winning matches.
Bhupathi went on to speak about his ‘unique’ bond with Paes. “People will not understand it,” he said. “We have been through so much, so many highs and lows in our career, and that bond has always been there. Has it been reignited because of the communication over the last 18 months? Absolutely. But, honestly, we run into each other a lot more than people know because our daughters are in the same tennis academy. They are also in the same school. That bond, I think, will remain forever.”
He also shared his expectations for the future of Indian tennis. Bhupathi and Paes contributed to the popularity of the sport in India, as did Sania Mirza, who like them, became world number one in doubles.
“My hope is always that we consistently get to see our players compete in the Grand Slams day in and day out and, hopefully, win them,” he said.