{source}
<g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/106573640449893329738" rel="author" width="300" height="69"></g:plus>
{/source}Little did the World know that a player making his first appearance in the Olympics as a second fiddle to his senior pro would come four years later to win an Olympic bronze for his country? Yes, such is the story of India’s number 1 tennis star Leander Paes.
Paes appeared in the Olympics for the first time in 1992 Barcelona pairing alongside the much experienced Ramesh Krishnan. They went till the quarter-finals and next year, Paes went a step better to clinch the bronze, thus becoming the first Indian tennis star ever to do so.
Freestyle wrestler, KD Jadhav was the first Indian post independence to win an individual medal. He won a bronze in 1952 Helsinki Games and it took 44 long years for an Indian to win one individual medal again. And the best part was that the medal saw him break the jinx and India won medals in all the edition of the sporting extravaganza after that.
In 2000 Sydney Games, weightlifter Karnam Malleswari won a bronze, which made her the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. In Athens in 2004, Rajyavardhan Rathore claimed silver in the men's double trap. In Beijing in 2008, Abhinav Bindra shot to glory with gold in the 10M air rifle event, becoming India's first individual gold medalist. The edition also saw Vijender Singh win a bronze in boxing and Sushil Kumar doing the same in wrestling.
Paes was 24 when he entered Atlanta and was placed at 124 in the world rankings. But the way he started playing it looked like he was a man on mission. He moved through the ranks killing every giant that stood in defiance in front of him finally to fall prey to the ‘Goliath’ of World tennis of that period Andre Agassi.
Playing in his first match of the Games, he defeated World number 20 Richey Renberg of America. Well luck was on his side in this match as the American conceded the match due to an injury. But then he did made it clear in his next match that he was not a pushover and defeated the World number 74 Nicolas Periera by conceding just five games.
Every time he entered the court with a rejuvenated energy and a better approach. In his third match he beat the World number 10 Swede Thomas Enquist in straight sets. In the round of eight, he knocked out Renzo Furlan in straight sets.
Now just a game away from the finals, he was up against Andre Agassi. Agassi was not going through best of his forms but then still had enough firepower to blow Paes away. But then no one can claim that Paes surrendered meekly and he did put a fight to scare before out 6-7, 3-6.
Next Paes was playing perhaps the most important match of his career and in the play-offs for the bronze medal play-offs he held on to his nerve to beat Fernando Meligeni 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. What makes the win even more special is that he played with a wrist injury.
His win set the tone for India and the country which was eluded of an Olympic medal for 44 years saw got onto the medal in all the following editions.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhary
Indian Sports News
