Leander Paes laments state of Indian Davis Cup, says will take a decade to lift

Indian tennis icon Leander Paes is pained by the relegation of the countrys Davis Cup team and feels it will take a better half of a decade to lift the standardThe Indian Davis Cup team was relegated to World Group 2 for the first time after a 23 loss to Denmark in their away fixture earlier this monthI feel like its going to take a few years until the Davis Cup team has some serious talent in it said the player with a record 45 doubles victories in Davis CupIndian tennis decline was apparent during the Australian Open last month when for the first time since 2017 no player from the country could make the cut to compete in the qualification round of a Grand SlamI feel quite saddened in a way that we dont have one player in the singles ranking in the top300 I dont think thats ever happened said the Olympic bronze medallistPrajnesh Gunneswaran is currently the highestranked Indian in singles at 306 on the ATP listIve tremendous respect for all our Indian players who are travelling on the circuit in a sport like tennis where the cost of training and conducting making a the career is so expensiveIn tennis where 99 per cent of the sport is played outside the country being alone on the circuit is not easy Zeeshan Ali and I have slept in locker rooms because we didnt have money to pay for a hotelThat being said I think its going to take a better half of a decade for the Davis Cup team to have that quality like we had when Ramesh Krishnan Zeeshan Ali Vijay Amritraj and all of us had To get to the semifinals in the Davis Cup is tougher now he saidLeander was addressing the media sitting beside his father Dr Vece Paes a bronze medallist at the 1971 hockey World Cup in Barcelona and the Munich Olympics in 1972Also Read Looking back at the most significant performances from Sania Mirzas inspiring careerBiopic in the pipelineLeander who campaigned for the Trinamool Congress ahead of the Goa Assembly elections last year refused to take any political questions and said hes currently busy working on a biopic to portray the fatherson duos legacy on the big screen He revealed that it should be ready in 18 monthsIm working on my own story right now I will give a little nugget today that the Leander storyboard is being worked on right now I cant speak much about itIt will be a story of how baba father won his Olympic medal in 1972 and a few of you are old enough to know what happened thereYou all will understand why a young boy growing up to my fathers history my passion was to emulate him So its going to be about 1972 to 1996 reallyIts going to be an inspirational story on how not necessarily you have to be the tallest most talented skilled person to become an athlete Not necessarily you will have to have great infrastructure eitherIm working on a storyboard at the moment and hopefully in 18 months you will get to see it and the posters will be out thereAsked whether he wants to get into sports administration and join the All India Tennis Association AITA he gave an indirect replyI was born into a house where both my parents played for Tiranga Tricolour I grew up in a house where I ironed my fathers playing jersey which had No 10 on it My mothers jersey was No 5 said Leander who was born into a sports family with father a hockey Olympian and mother Jennifer an Indian basketball captainWhen I look at India as a whole for me doing things for the community and creating opportunities for the youth is the most important thing The next decade would be very interesting as we are the youngest country in the worldWhen you talk about sports as a vehicle to give opportunity to the youth that is where my passion is My passion is giving opportunities to the youth so that they can live their dreamsDjokovic the GOATLeander also hailed Novak Djokovics Australian Open victory last month that brought him on par with Rafael Nadals 22 career Grand SlamsThe win came just a year after the Serbian was deported from the same venue for not being vaccinated against COVID19Djokovic didnt get a chance to play in Australia because of COVID issues but it was wonderful to see him winning the Australian Open on his return last monthFor me his perseverance his tenacity his grit is something that I admire a lot Yes he gets a bit of a bad reputation because of the way he conducts the passion the confidence that he has the way hes bold in making statementsA few people may not like his personality but for me Ive so much respect for his personality He comes from a country that is really hard and tough and from there to become a champion speaks a lotHes got another four years ahead of him thats 16 Grand Slams Is he going to win one or two more 100 per cent He could win at least five more I think in my humble opinion Djokovic will go down in the history books as the greatest of all time Leander signed offThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness 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