Break Point: Leander Paes On Mahesh Bhupathi, ‘With Him, It Was Always Difficult To Get A Word Out Of Him Because He Is Not The Most Vociferous Communicator’

On Friday during a virtual press conference of their upcoming doc-series Break Point Leander Paes and opened up about his sour relationship with Mahesh Bhupathi,  the reason for doing the series, and much more. The series is helmed by filmmaker couple Nitesh Tiwari and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and will focus on, the on and off-court partnership between the two Indian tennis players.

Going down the memory lane Leander says, "With Mahesh, it was always difficult to get a word out of him because he is not the most vociferous communicator. But if I could see that archival footage then, in 1999, or in 2000 when the break was happening, maybe things could have been different.” Leander also believes that if they had a sensible communicator between them, things would have been completely different for the duo, “Maybe if our communication could have been better then, and I will take responsibility for my communication too if we had a Break Point straight after winning the Wimbledon and the French Open in 1999, we could have played for a few more years.”

He further adds, "The highs and lows of Mahesh and my career both on and off the court, there were a lot of things that we had not addressed. There are conversations that we are now a little wiser for so hence we can address them and find closure to them. There are a few conversations we are more mature about so we can laugh at ourselves.”

“Through all our differences, recognizing that we are different personalities, we have different emotions, we do our business differently, but yet at the same time the unconditional brotherhood that we have. That translated every time we played for the country. It is very unique that most of the times that we stood on podiums with trophies in our hands; our relationship was at its worst. Yet being able to drive forward through that... The brotherhood that we have, he knows that anytime he needs me, I will be around and I know the same for him," Leander states.

Director by Nitesh Tiwari and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari Break Point is slated to release on 1 October on Zee5. The series will also feature Sania Mirza and other sports personality who shares their point of views about the two legends.