Leander Paes stands on the cusp of history. With 124 Davis Cup matches going into his doubles tie against New Zealand this evening, he is, at 43, already the most experienced Indian campaigner in the world team event. But now he's going for a world record: A 43rd doubles win in the Davis Cup, which will lift him above Italy's Nicola Pietrangeli.
Normally this would be cause for celebration. Yet like his namesake in Greek mythology, Leander finds himself swimming against the tide, the light on the far shore growing steadily dim. This Davis Cup tie against New Zealand could be his last. There are younger and better ranked doubles players (Rohan Bopanna at 28, Divij Sharan 60 and Purav Raja 63) who can't be denied much longer. His own form is indifferent - he is 1-3 in doubles this year.
Even the 'farewell' doubles match has been buffeted by controversy. His listed partner was injured and Bopanna is, to put it plainly, not here.
If the analogy with Greek mythology seems excessive, Leander is, without doubt, a key part of the Indian tennis legend.
It's a legend that began 27 years ago, in what was almost a totally different world. Leander's partner on Saturday, Vishnu Vardhan, would have barely been out of his diapers then. His other Davis Cup teammates Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan weren't born yet. Alistair Hunt, the New Zealand non-playing captain sitting on the opposing bench was once his partner in junior Wimbledon. Vishnu, Yuki and Ram Kumar would begin their playing careers with carbon graphite racquets. "I began playing with a wooden racquet," recalls Leander.
"He was not afraid of the crucial point. Most people play safe. He attacked all the time. He played the big points very well. You can call him mad or whatever, but in big points he was top class"
He was 16 years old in that first Davis Cup tie - against Japan in Chandigarh. Naresh Kumar, the non-playing captain from back then, remembers how he had to fight opposition from within the team to pick the teenager alongside Zeeshan Ali (coach of the current Davis Cup team). After a madcap 4 hours and 20 minutes they beat the Japanese pair Ota and Matsuoka 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 18-16. It remains the longest Davis Cup tie played by an Indian doubles pair.
"'I can't believe it. I can't believe it'," Kumar, now 87, remembers the venerable Ramesh Krishnan muttering from the sidelines even as Leander hacked, volleyed and smashed one point after the other at the net.
One thing stood out even then, says Kumar. "He was not afraid of the crucial point. Most people play safe. He attacked all the time. He played the big points very well. You can call him mad or whatever, but in big points he was top class."
It was a fitting start to the Davis Cup career that followed. "You couldn't have asked for a better initiation into Davis Cup," says Zeeshan. "Even today, Leander will consider this to be among the best matches of his career. Imagine the high it would have given a 16-year-old kid. Only we knew what it was like to be out there. It kind of set the roadmap for his Davis Cup career, didn't it?"
There would be no shortage of big points or big matches over the next three decades. It's easy to remember him now as purely a doubles player, yet of his 55 Davis Cup ties, he has played three matches (two singles and a doubles) on 32 occasions. He's won all three matches in 16 of those ties.
The gulf he'd often been asked to cross was often a wide one. Defying India's low rankings and patchy tennis history, he's played powerhouses of the sport and beaten players who were ranked well above him (Henri Leconte, Jacob Hlasek, and Arnaud Boetsch in 1993, Goran Ivanisevic in 1995, Jiri Novak in 1997).
It helped, Kumar says, that Leander was fearless. He was, at five foot ten, shorter than most tennis players. Indeed for someone who had a decidedly average game and a backhand even less than that, that was remarkable. "He wasn't the most talented player. But he had grit. I remember, even at 16, he had an attitude in the way he walked, that even others noticed," he says.
"Ranks meant nothing to him. Names meant nothing to him," says Jaideep Mukherjea, who would coach Leander and subsequently captain him in some of his greatest victories.
For example, when he played Leconte in July 1993, the Frenchman was one of the biggest names of the time. He had led France to a Davis Cup crown in 1991. A year later he was in the semifinals of the French Open. On the slow clay at Frejus, Leander would beat the veteran in four sets in the World Group quarters.
Zeeshan remembers the confidence of Leander, not yet 20. "We were sitting inside. And Leconte was about to serve when he stopped suddenly. We looked at the other end and there was Leander standing two feet away from the service line and returning that serve. The rest of us had a lot of respect [for Leconte] but for Leander it didn't matter who you were."
It's a self-belief that reflects in his numbers. 48-22 in the Davis singles. The statistics are even more flattering in the doubles -- 42-12. Far better in fact, than his 729-408 doubles record on the tour.
It's no secret that Leander seems to climb a ladder of inspiration every time he pulled on the India jersey. It is almost de rigueur now for sportsmen to proclaim their national identity but back in the 1990s, it was very rare to see an Indian sportsman embrace the tricolour, to revel in his Indianness, as Leander did. It seemed not to matter where the tie was held, whether in front of home crowds or in lonely foreign stadiums.
And that spirit seemed to visibly lift him, move him to leave it all on the court. Even with Bopanna, with whom he shares the prickliest of relations, he would pull off a comeback win from two sets and a break down against Serbia a couple of years ago. "You measure every other (Indian) champion of the era against Leander when it comes to commitment to the country's cause," the late Nirmal Shekar once wrote in the Hindu newspaper.
It's a transformation that's bewildering to many but not Leander himself. His parents, Vece and Jennifer, both represented India in sport and, growing up, he says, he idolized that. "When I was a kid, I would polish my father's Olympic bronze medal (won in hockey in 1972). I was always fascinated by the India jersey too," he told ESPN after practice on Thursday. "I still remember ironing and then folding my parents' jerseys. Mom's had a V-neck with dark blue pockets on a light blue base with the number 5 on the back. Dad's had a collar. His was a number 10 with light blue pockets on a dark background. I was the only one who was allowed to touch them."
He has his own jerseys now, a stock collected over nearly three decades. "I still keep them all. I've framed a few. But the ones that mean a lot are on hangers in a locker at my home. Every time I feel I need inspiration or motivation, I open that locker and look at them," he says.
He's needed plenty of inspiration over three decades. There was the battle with a brain lesion in 2003, which threatened to end his career. There have been controversies with teammates and personal demons - including a messy and public court case with his former partner - to sort out.
"Even now Leander will talk to me and tell me something he learned from a partner. He'll partner with a Tipsarevic or a Wawrinka and then tell me 'I should play the backhand this way' or 'my feet need to move this way'"
Leander speaks often with his first Davis Cup captain. "He has many problems," says Kumar. "I don't know if I can solve them. But it's amazing that even with these problems he is able to play in the manner he does."
It's an assessment seconded by Zeeshan too. "For the life of me, I can't figure it out. I'm sure it wasn't easy. It never is. A lot of people would have given up. But if there's one thing this guy has never lacked, it is the fighting spirit. You have to be at a different level to shut your mind. It's possible for you to do it once or twice. But to be able to do it day in and day out over as long a period of time as Leander has? I can't explain it. Only Leander can."
"Isn't that where the fun is?" Leander himself said playfully, before turning . "It's something that I have worked on. I'm still working on it."
That indicates a hunger, an undimmed focus, and Kumar agrees. "Even now Leander will talk to me and tell me something he learned from a partner. He'll partner with a Tipsarevic or a Wawrinka and then tell me 'I should play the backhand this way' or 'my feet need to move this way'."
That willingness to admit shortcomings and persist in bettering himself has perhaps been the key to his longevity. "I think he's a far more superior player now. In the way he understands his game so much better. Leander when he started was a wild sort of player. He was all over the court. He plays within himself a lot more now," says Zeeshan. "So he stays close to the net. He was once rated to have the quickest hands around. And those reflexes have not left him yet."
They will need to be by his side once more on Saturday evening if he is to get his record. "The tie will not be an easy one," cautions Mukherjea. Vishnu is ranked 338 and Leander 64. New Zealand's Artem Sitak and Michael Venus are 56 and 36. Yet Mukherjea also knows another fact. "If there is anyone who doesn't bother about rankings, it's Leander," he says.
After 27 years representing the country, it often seems Leander believes his and the country's interests are interchangeable. When he spoke of competing in his seventh Olympics at Rio last year he described it as a record for India. At the presser ahead of the Davis Cup tie against New Zealand, he described the approaching landmark in similar terms.
It can appear immodest, and is often interpreted that way, but there is some truth to that assessment. "He brought tennis to the masses," says Zeeshan.
On Saturday evening, Leander will once again be the centre of tennis discussions. Regardless the outcome of what might be the final battle of a storied Davis Cup career, he has already crossed over into the pantheon of Indian greats.