Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born 7 June 1974) is an Indian former doubles world No. 1

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

tournament (with

Rika Hiraki Rika Hiraki (, born 6 December 1971) is a former professional Japanese tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of ...

). With his win at the 2006 Australian Open mixed doubles, he joined the elite group of eight tennis players who have achieved a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles. He is also the founder of

International Premier Tennis League The International Premier Tennis League (IPTL, officially the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League Presented by Qatar Airways pursuant to sponsorship agreements with The Coca-Cola Company and Qatar Airways) was an annual team tennis lea ...

. In December 2016, Bhupathi was appointed as India's next non-playing

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

captain and took over the reins from

Anand Amritraj Anand Amritraj (born 20 March 1951) is an Indian former tennis player and businessman. He, along with brother Vijay Amritraj, led India into the 1974 Davis Cup finals against South Africa, and was a part of the Indian team captained by Vijay ...

in February 2017.

Career

1995–2006

Mahesh Bhupathi is considered one of the top doubles players of the 1990s and 2000s. In 1999, Bhupathi won three doubles titles with

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-tim ...

, including the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

. He and Paes became the first doubles team to reach the finals of all four Grand Slams, the first time such a feat has been achieved in the open era and the first time since 1952. On 26 April of that year, they became the world no. 1 doubles team. Bhupathi also won the US Open

mixed doubles Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis, and badminton (where it is known ...

with

Ai Sugiyama is a Japanese former tennis player. She reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles on the WTA Tour and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. In her career, she won six singles and 38 doubles ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. In 2006, Bhupathi teamed with

Martina Hingis Martina Hingis (, ; born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 209 weeks ( fifth-most of all time) and as the world No. ...

in the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

mixed doubles competition. Entering the tournament unseeded and as wildcards, the first-time pair defeated four seeded opponents along the way, while only dropping a single set throughout. Bhupathi and Hingis defeated the sixth-seeded team of

Daniel Nestor Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; ; born Danijel Nestorović, September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 108 weeks ( fifth-most ...

and

Elena Likhovtseva Elena Alexandrovna Likhovtseva ( ; born 8 September 1975) is a Kazakhstani-born Russian former tennis player. She turned professional in January 1992, at the age of 16. Together with Mahesh Bhupathi she won the Wimbledon Mixed doubles in 20 ...

in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3, to capture the championship. It was the sixth mixed doubles Grand Slam for Bhupathi, and the first one for Hingis. By winning the Australian Open, Bhupathi completed a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles.

2007–2008

In 2007, Bhupathi and

Radek Štěpánek Radek Štěpánek (; born 27 November 1978) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 8 and best doubles ranking was world No. 4. Štěpánek's biggest achievements are reaching two Masters 1000 ...

reached the

2007 Australian Open The 2007 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 15 January until 28 January 2007. The total prize pool was set at exactly A$20 million, with the winners of both the men's and women's singles competi ...

men's doubles event's quarterfinals. Bhupathi teamed with Štěpánek at the

2007 French Open The 2007 French Open (Roland Garros) was held in Paris, France from 27 May through to 10 June 2007. Rafael Nadal became the first man to win the tournament 3 times consecutively since Björn Borg, 1978–81; and maintained his unbeaten run at Rola ...

to make the doubles semifinals, defeating two-year defending champions

Jonas Björkman Jonas Lars Björkman (; born 23 March 1972) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He is a former world No. 1 in doubles, and also a former world No. 4 in singles. Björkman retired from professional tennis after competing at the 2008 ...

and

Max Mirnyi Maksim Mikalaevich "Max" Mirnyi (born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player. Mirnyi became a doubles specialist following his singles career, in which he reached a career-high of World No. 18 (August 2003) and finished ...

in the quarterfinals. The team lost to the eventual champions

Mark Knowles Mark Knowles (born 4 September 1971) is a Bahamians, Bahamian former professional tennis player and coach. He is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles tennis, doubles. He won three of the four Gran ...

and

. After

, Bhupathi teamed with

Pavel Vízner Pavel Vízner (born 15 July 1970) is a retired professional male tennis player from the Czech Republic. Vízner has reached the French Open final twice, having had turned professional in 1990 and achieved a career high doubles ranking of World ...

to win the 2007 Canada Masters, defeating the top-ranked doubles team Bob and

Mike Bryan Michael Carl Bryan (born April 29, 1978) is an American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all time, Bryan was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's doubles for a record 506 weeks ...

en route. After this victory, he won a tournament in

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

with

Nenad Zimonjić Nenad Zimonjić ( sr-Cyrl, Ненад Зимоњић, ; born 4 June 1976) is a Serbian former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles. He is an eight-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2008 and 2009 Wimbledon Ch ...

. At the 2007 US Open, he and Zimonjić paired in doubles. After the US Open, the team that beat Bhupathi and Štěpánek in the French Open semifinals, Knowles and Nestor, split up. Bhupathi became Knowles' partner, while Zimonjić became Nestor's, but back surgery meant he was out until the end of the year.

2009–2012

In 2009, Bhupathi and compatriot

Sania Mirza Sania Mirza (; born 15 November 1986) is an Indian former professional tennis player. A former doubles world No. 1, she won six major titles – three in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles. From 2003 until her retirement from singles ...

won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open, beating

Nathalie Dechy Nathalie Dechy (born 21 February 1979) is a former professional tennis player from France. Dechy is a three-time doubles Grand Slam champion, winning the 2006 US Open women's doubles title with Vera Zvonareva, the 2007 French Open mixed doubl ...

and

Andy Ram Andreas "Andy" Ram (; born April 10, 1980) is a retired Israeli professional tennis player. He was primarily a doubles player, and competed in three Olympics. He is the first Israeli tennis player to win a senior Grand Slam event. Ram first ...

, 6–3, 6–1, in the final. The Indian pair thus made up for the disappointment of the previous year's final when they were beaten by

Sun Tiantian Sun Tiantian ( zh, s=孙甜甜, p=Sūn Tiántián; ; born 12 October 1981) is a Chinese tennis player. She won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in women's doubles along with her partner Li Ting. Sun reached a career-high singles ...

and

. With this win, Bhupathi's count in mixed doubles Grand Slam titles increased to seven. Bhupathi broke up his partnership with Knowles and began playing once again with

, with whom he played to win the 2002 US Open. In 2011, Bhupathi reunited with former playing partner

for the 2011 Australian Open. The team reached the final, but lost 3–6, 4–6 to the Bryan brothers. On 7 June 2012, Bhupathi and

won the French Open mixed doubles. On 4 November 2012, Bhupathi and partner

Rohan Bopanna Rohan Machanda Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He attained the List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 ranking after winning his first Grand Slam (tenni ...

won the Paris Masters cup. In spite of suffering a setback with their loss against

Jonathan Marray Jonathan Marray (born 10 March 1981) is a former British tennis player and a 2012 Wimbledon Championships – Men's doubles, Wimbledon Men's Doubles champion. Marray is a former top 20 doubles (tennis), doubles player, reaching a career high of ...

and

Frederik Nielsen Frederik Løchte Nielsen (born 27 August 1983) is a Danish tennis coach and a former professional player. A Wimbledon men's doubles champion, he peaked at world No. 17 in the rankings in April 2013. Nielsen reached five other doubles finals ...

in the ATP Tour Finals opener, the Indian duo reached the final round of the ATP Tour Finals, but suffered a defeat at the hands of

Marcel Granollers Marcel Granollers Pujol (; ; born 12 April 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 1 on 6 May 2024, becoming the second Spanish man to achieve the feat (after Emilio Sánchez Vicari ...

and

Marc López Marc López Tarrés (, ; born 31 July 1982) is a Spanish tennis coach and a former professional player. His career-high ATP singles ranking was world No. 3 in doubles, achieved in January 2013 and No. 106, achieved in May 2004. Partnering wi ...

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles-2010-01-02

2013

Bhupathi and Bopanna played with different partners for the first three months of 2013, Bhupathi winning the tournament in Dubai in March with

Michaël Llodra Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 3 in men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), winning 26 career doubles titles, including three majors and ...

, but rejoined starting with the Monte-Carlo Masters.

Playing style

Mahesh Bhupathi is known for his strong serve. According to

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

, his strong

backhand The backhand is a shot used in most racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and pickleball, where the back of the hand precedes the palm when swinging the racket. Except in the phrase ''backhand volley'', the term refers to a groundstr ...

makes him the best for an Ad Court player.

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

acclaims him as one of the best doubles players of all time. He often discusses strategies between the serves with his partner during the match and also communicates using finger-at-the-back signals.

Year-end finals

Bhupathi appeared with Paes in six season finales. In 2011, they appeared, for the first time since 2002, after securing qualification in mid-October. Bhupathi played at the year-end championships with Paes from 1997 to 2000 and in 2002, reaching three finals. In 1997, they lost the final to

Rick Leach Rick Leach (born December 28, 1964) is a former professional tennis player and coach from the United States. A doubles specialist, he won five Grand Slam doubles titles (three at the Australian Open, one at Wimbledon, and one at the US Open) ...

and Jonathan Stark. They lost the 1999 final to

Sébastien Lareau Sébastien Lareau (; born April 27, 1973) is a former professional tennis player. He became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam title by winning the 1999 US Open men's doubles with his American partner Alex O'Brien. As a singles player ...

and Alex O’Brien. In 2000, they lost the final to

Donald Johnson Donald James Johnson (born September 9, 1968) is an American former professional tennis player who reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking in 2002. Although born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was raised and learned the sport of tennis in the ...

and

Pieter Norval Pieter ("Piet") Norval (born 7 April 1970) is a former tennis player from South Africa, who turned professional in 1988. His most notable achievement was winning the mixed doubles at the French Open in 1999. The right-hander represented his nat ...

. Bhupathi also qualified with

in 2003, 2004, and 2010, when they finished runners-up to

and

. He appeared at the finals with

in 2008 and 2009. In 2012, he and

made it to the final, where they lost to

and

Significant finals

Mixed doubles: 12 (8 titles, 4 runner-ups)

By winning the 2006 Australian Open title, Bhupathi completed the mixed doubles Career Grand Slam. He became the eighth male player in history to achieve this.

Olympic medal matches

Doubles: 1 (1 fourth place)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 96 (52–44)

Performance timelines

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Grand Slam seedings

The tournaments won by Bhupathi are in boldface, and advanced into finals by Bhupathi are in italics.

Men's doubles

Mixed doubles

Davis Cup and Asian Games

Bhupathi has donned Indian colours numerous times for the

as well as other international tournaments, including the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

. Bhupathi has played 55 matches for India in the Davis Cup (from 1995 to 2011), winning 35 and losing 20. Out of the 35 matches that he won, 27 of his victories came in doubles matches. In 2006, Bhupathi won the doubles championship with

at the Asian Games in Doha.

Personal life

In 2001, he was awarded the

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

, one of India's highest civilian awards. Bhupathi is an alumnus of the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

in the United States. He is the founder of Globosport India private Limited which he started in 2002 as a sports and entertainment agency. He married model Shvetha Jaishankar in 2002 but the couple got divorced in 2009 after seven years of marriage. He then married

Miss Universe 2000 Miss Universe 2000 was the 49th Miss Universe pageant, held at the Eleftheria Indoor Hall in Nicosia, Cyprus on 12 May 2000. At the end of the event, Mpule Kwelagobe of Botswana crowned Lara Dutta of India as Miss Universe 2000. It is the co ...

Lara Dutta Lara Dutta Bhupathi ( Dutta; born 16 April 1978) is an Indian actress. She won the Miss Universe 2000, and has since predominantly worked in Hindi films and series. Dutta is a recipient of a Filmfare Awards, Filmfare Award and established hers ...

in a civil ceremony on 16 February 2011 at

Bandra Bandra ( æːɳɖɾa is a coastal suburb located in Mumbai, the largest city of the Konkan division in Maharashtra, India. The area is located to the immediate north of the River Mithi, which separates Bandra from the Mumbai City district. It ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. It was followed by a Christian ceremony on 20 February 2011 at Sunset Point in Goa. On 1 August 2011, Dutta confirmed that she was pregnant with their first child. Their daughter Saira was born on 20 January 2012. In 2010, the couple started a film production company, Big Daddy Productions. In 2014, Mahesh Bhupathi launched an authentic Indian sports brand, ZEVEN. The company currently endorses

Ravindra Jadeja Ravindrasinh Anirudhsinh Jadeja (born 6 December 1988) is an Indian cricketer who represents the national team currently in ODI and Test formats. He is an all-rounder, who bats left-handed and bowls left-arm orthodox spin. Widely hailed as one ...

Shikhar Dhawan Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian former cricketer. A left-handed opening batter, he was considered one of the greatest ODI batsmen for Indian cricket team for a decade and Delhi in domestic cricket. His batting average in IC ...

and

Mary Kom Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom (born 24 November 1982) is an Indian Amateur boxing, Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Champions ...

, amongst others.

Partnerships

Partners in doubles

Partners in mixed doubles

*These lists only consists of players who played with Mahesh Bhupathi in ATP(& ITF)-recognized tournaments which include the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

, Grand Slams, World Tour Finals, World Tour Masters, World Tour Series, Davis Cup Ties, and

ATP Challenger The ATP Challenger Tour (known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series) is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

s. The lists might be incomplete when all the other tournaments are considered. The order of the players in the list is based on their first partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi.

Other partners

India – Asian Games/Commonwealth Games/Other Events

Partnership with Leander Paes

Bhupathi and Leander Paes partnered in the men's doubles event at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

in Beijing, but lost the quarterfinals, to

and

Stanislas Wawrinka Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), first achieved on 27 January 2014. Wawrinka has won 16 ATP T ...

of Switzerland, who went on to win the gold medal. Paes and Bhupathi decided to team up again at the Australian Open 2011, ending a nine-year separation on the ATP circuit. They reached the finals of the event, but lost to American twins Bob and Mike Bryan. Paes stated at the time that the best thing has been to have their friendship back. The Indian duo has a 303–103 career record together. They have a Davis Cup record of longest winning streak in doubles, with 23 straight wins. Leander Paes wanted to play with Mahesh Bhupathi in the men's doubles event of the London Olympics, to be held July–August 2012. On 19 June 2012, the All India Tennis association relented to the demands of Bhupathi and Bopanna of not playing along Paes. Two teams were sent for the London Olympics- 2012, with Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna as one team and the other team consisting of Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan. Bhupathi also accused AITA of using Sania Mirza as bait for Leander's participation in the Olympics. When AITA relented to the wishes of Bhupathi and Bopanna and permitted them to play together, they lost in the second round to the unseeded French pairing of

Richard Gasquet Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 7 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP, attained in July 2007. Gasquet won 16 singles ...

and

Julien Benneteau Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 25 and doubles ranking of No. 5 in November 2014. Benneteau did not win a singles ti ...

Davis Cup record

The duo of Bhupathi and Paes has the longest doubles streak in Davis Cup history.

Sports management and e-commerce

Bhupathi has also been involved in developing tennis facilities in India and, along with his company Globosport, has played a key role in developing and managing the careers of many Indian athletes, including

International Premier Tennis League

Mahesh Bhupathi announced the founding of the International Premier Tennis League on 25 May 2013, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The initial plan was to start the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

with six charter franchises in Asia with the inaugural

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

commencing in November 2014. Bhupathi said the league would be modeled after the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...

, a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

league in India.

Justin Gimelstob Justin Jeremy Gimelstob (born January 26, 1977) is a retired American tennis player. Gimelstob has been a resident of Morristown, New Jersey, and as of 2009 lived in Santa Monica, California. He was the top-ranked boy in his age group at the ag ...

said that the league would be star-driven as

World Team Tennis World TeamTennis (WTT) was a mixed-gender professional tennis league played with a team format in the United States, which was founded in 1973. The league's season normally took place in the summer months. Players from the ATP and WTA would ...

was in the 1970s.

In popular culture

Break Point Break Point may refer to: * ''Break Point'' (film), a 2014 American comedy directed by Jay Karas * ''Break Point'' (2021 TV series), an Indian documentary series * ''Break Point'' (2023 TV series), a documentary series released by Netflix * " ...

– A documentary series of Zee5 app released in 2021 unfolding the ups and downs in the relationship between Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.

Awards

, 2001 * Sports people for Change Karmaveer Puraskaar, 2007, iCONGO-Confederation of NGOs *

Commitment Award

Notes

References

External links

Career

1995–2006

2007–2008

2009–2012

2013

Playing style

Year-end finals

Significant finals

Mixed doubles: 12 (8 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Olympic medal matches

Doubles: 1 (1 fourth place)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 96 (52–44)

Performance timelines

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Grand Slam seedings

Men's doubles

Mixed doubles

Davis Cup and Asian Games

Personal life

Partnerships

Partners in doubles

Partners in mixed doubles

Other partners

India – Asian Games/Commonwealth Games/Other Events

Partnership with Leander Paes

Davis Cup record

Sports management and e-commerce

International Premier Tennis League

In popular culture

Awards

See also

Notes

References

External links