Mahesh Bhupathi Indian Tennis Player From Chennai

Early life

Mahesh Bhupathi was born on 7 June 1974 in Chennai. He went to Stanes Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and later studied at the University of Mississippi, where he played for the Ole Miss Rebels men's tennis team. He went on to become an Indian tennis player who reached world number one in doubles.

Career

Bhupathi made his name in doubles during the 1990s and 2000s. In 1997, partnering Rika Hiraki, he became the first Indian to win a major tournament. In 1999 he won three doubles titles with Leander Paes, among them the French Open and Wimbledon, and the two became the first doubles team to reach the finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in a year in the open era. On 26 April 1999 they became the world number one doubles team.

He was equally successful in mixed doubles. In 1999 he won the US Open mixed title with Ai Sugiyama of Japan. In 2006 he entered the Australian Open mixed event as an unseeded wildcard pair with Martina Hingis, and they beat four seeded opponents on the way to the title, defeating the sixth-seeded team of Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 6-3 in the final. It was his sixth mixed doubles Grand Slam title and completed a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles, making him the eighth man to do so. In 2009 he won the Australian Open mixed title again, with his compatriot Sania Mirza, beating Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram 6-3, 6-1, which brought his total to seven mixed doubles majors. In June 2012 the pair won the French Open mixed title.

In men's doubles he won the 2002 US Open with Max Mirnyi. In 2007 he reached the French Open semifinals with Radek Štěpánek, and later that year he won the Canada Masters with Pavel Vízner, beating the top-ranked pairing of Bob and Mike Bryan along the way. He won a tournament in New Haven with Nenad Zimonjić, and he also played for several seasons with Mark Knowles. He and Paes partnered at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and lost in the quarterfinals to Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka. After a separation of about nine years on the tour, the two reunited at the 2011 Australian Open and reached the final, losing to the Bryan brothers 3-6, 4-6. In November 2012 Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna won the Paris Masters and then reached the final of the ATP Tour Finals, where they lost to Marcel Granollers and Marc López. In March 2013 he won the Dubai title with Michaël Llodra.

Bhupathi played 55 Davis Cup matches for India between 1995 and 2011, winning 35 of them, 27 of those in doubles. He and Paes hold the Davis Cup record for the longest winning streak in doubles, with 23 straight wins. In 2006 the pair won the doubles gold at the Asian Games in Doha. In December 2016 Bhupathi was appointed India's non-playing Davis Cup captain, and he took over from Anand Amritraj in February 2017.

Away from the court he founded Globosport India, a sports and entertainment agency, in 2002, and the company has helped manage the careers of many Indian athletes, including Sania Mirza. In 2010 he started a film production company, Big Daddy Productions. On 25 May 2013 he announced in Paris the founding of the International Premier Tennis League, which was to be modelled on the Indian Premier League cricket competition and begin with six franchises in Asia. In 2014 he launched ZEVEN, an Indian sports brand.

Recognition

Bhupathi received the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri in sports, the latter in 2001. He was also given the Sports People for Change Karmaveer Puraskaar in 2007 and the Davis Cup Commitment Award, and in 2025 he received the Kempegowda Award from the government of Karnataka.

Personal life

Bhupathi married the model Shvetha Jaishankar in 2002, and the marriage ended in 2010. In 2011 he married the actress Lara Dutta, a former Miss Universe, in a civil ceremony in Mumbai on 16 February, followed by a Christian ceremony in Goa on 20 February.