Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi was born in Chennai on 7^th June 1974 in a Christian family. His mother tongue is Telugu. He graduated from the University of Mississippi in the United States of America. He was trained by his father, Mr. C.G. Krishna Bhupathi during his early years. He began his professional lawn tennis career in 1995.

Mahesh Bhupathi is the first Indian to win a Grand Slam in the Mixed Doubles category at the French Open in 1997. He developed a good partnership with Leander Paes from 1999 to 2006. The partnership went from good to worse. Both of them played so well in tandem that they went up in the doubles rankings quite fast in the world. In 1999, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi became the best doubles pair in the world. Along with Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi featured in many memorable grand slam matches, Olympic matches as well as Davis Cup matches for India. In 2006, they had announced, on account of a rift between them, that they will never play as a team again. Yet, they came together to play in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing but lost in the quarter finals to Roger Federer and Stanislaw Wawrenka of Switzerland who went on to win the men’s doubles gold medal.

Mahesh Bhupathi has played many times for India in the Davis Cup and the Asian Games. He has played forty six matches for India in the Davis Cup from 1995 to 2006, winning twenty eight matches and losing eighteen. Out of the twenty eight matches that he won, twenty of his victories came in the doubles matches. He has played in eleven mixed doubles grand slam matches, winning seven and losing four. When he won the Australian Open title in 2006, he completed the mixed doubles career grand slam. He became the eighth player in history with this achievement of a career mixed doubles grand slam. Apart from his contribution as a team player in doubles matches, he has proved his skills in tennis by winning many singles titles too.

Mahesh Bhupathi is now considered as one of the top doubles players of the last two decades in the world. Mahesh Bhupathi received the Arjuna Award in 1996 and the Padma Shri in 2001. Mahesh Bhupathi has been connected with development of lawn tennis facilities in India. He started a company called `Globosport’ which plays a key role in the management and development of many Indian athletes’ careers including that of players like Sania Mirza.

Mahesh Bhupathi was earlier married to a model by the name of Shvetha Jaishankar for a period of seven years. He divorced her later and is now married to Lara Dutta, Miss Universe 2000, and film actress.

Mahesh Bhupathi is an introvert by nature and has a good sense of humour. He is intelligent and knows what he wants. He is a quiet doer. He goes about getting things done in a quiet manner. He is now interested in becoming an actor after his marriage to Lara Dutta. 

Article Posted By : tahnak  On August 28, 2011lView All Articles

Tahseen Nakavi Juror

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Keywords :
Mahesh Bhupathi , Tennis