By IANS,
New York : After winning the US Open mixed doubles title, ageless wonder Leander Paes is hungry for more and now wants to win the French Open title with partner Cara Black next season.
At 35, Paes’s cabinet boasts of eight grand slam trophies — four doubles and four mixed doubles — but he is not finished yet. Paes could well go on to add one more as he and Czech Lukas Dlouhy face Bryan twins Bob and Mike for the doubles title Friday.
“If I wake up 31 days in a row in the morning and I feel like I don’t enjoy this game, I’ll stop the next day. That’s always been the way for me,” Paes said after he and Zimbabwean Cara beat Englishman Jamie Murray and American Liezel Huber 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 at Flushing Meadows.
Paes said he approached the final with a purpose as the title had eluded him by a whisker twice in his career. Paes and Raymond in 2001 went down Australians Todd Woodbridge and Rennae Stubbs in the finals while last year he with American Meghann Shaughnessy lost a close title clash to Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
“It was in the back of my mind that I hadn’t won this one. I woke up this morning with a purpose. I woke up really fired up,” Paes said.
“The key part is selecting a good partner. I let Cara do all the work and I just stood back and enjoyed it.”
Paes’s earlier mixed doubles titles came with American Lisa Raymond in 1999 Wimbledon and later with legend Martina Navratilova in 2003 Wimbledon and Australian Open.
“I am still to win the French Open mixed doubles and hopefully Cara and I can win it next year,” Paes said.
Interestingly, Black and Huber are top ranked women’s doubles partner and are still alive in the tournament, having booked a place in semi-finals.
“It was tough for me to play against Liezel, but Leander was so good with me,” Black said. “He calmed me a lot. All thanks to Leander. He pulled me through.”
Cara came to rescue at crucial moments in the final. Once when the fifth seeds were in real danger of losing the first set when they were down 2-5 and then a set point in the tie-breaker. Cara produced two great volleys to pull them out of a tight corner before Paes put away a customary volley to clinch the set.
In the second set, Paes and Cara went a break up in the fifth game before Cara produced a beauty in the next game to leave Murray and Huber struggling to stay in the match.
“She won the match for us,” Paes said.
Both Paes and Cara showed excellent hands as they complimented each other with their deft touch play. The fifth seeds did not face a break point in the entire match and gelled so well that it didn’t look that they were playing for the first time together.
The absorbing tussle ended after an hour and 37 minutes and Paes and Cara shared the winners’ $150,000 prize money.