India tennis ace Leander Paes during the Davis Cup tie against China in Tianjin on Saturday. Pic/Suvam Pal

It was a bright and sunny day in Tianjin, one of China's mega-metropolis, which is 150-odd kms away from the Chinese capital, Beijing, and also the birthplace of Olympic legend Eric Liddell. As they say, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Leander Paes, who once brought an end to India's 44-year-long individual Olympic medal wait, brought India out of a seemingly impossible situation at a stadium, located just a few kilometre away from the track which was once designed by a legendary Liddell, who returned to China after his Olympic glory and spent the rest of his life in the middle kingdom.