Leander Paes

Mumbai: Leander Paes is a born leader. Over the years, his leadership qualities in the sport he has pursued so passionately have been well documented. Well, he is quite adept at motivating personnel from the corporate sector as well. His 20-minute interaction with the staff of the official hotel for the Kingfisher Airlines Open on Tuesday afternoon provided ample proof.

The hotel staff sat captivated as the seven-time Grand Slam winner lectured them and passed on some valuable tips on how to become successful professionals.

“Motivating people comes naturally to me because I believe in relating with them by citing relevant anecdotes from my sporting career,” Paes told The Telegraph shortly after the brainstorming session. “If you can’t relate to them, they won’t be convinced and the whole exercise will become futile.”

This is not the first time he has delivered such a lecture. “I have done this stuff before, in Orlando, New York and some Indian cities. And I quite enjoy these sessions.”

That was ‘assignment’ No. 1 on a busy day for India’s Davis Cup captain. A photo shoot at Nariman Point followed, before he fielded questions at the Media Centre.

Explaining why he chose to play with Aisam Qureshi in Mumbai and not a fellow-Indian, Paes said: “I would have played with Mahesh (Bhupathi) if he hadn’t already committed to Mario (Ancic). It would have been good practice for us for the Doha Asian Games.”

The challenge this week, Paes said, was to get a good partnership going with someone he hasn’t shared a court with before. “Aisam’s a good friend, we are very like-minded and I respect him a lot. But it’s still going to be tough to blend well as a team in about 48 hours or so,” Paes said, adding that Bhupathi and Ancic are the favourites to win here.

Generally reluctant to talk about his family, Paes made an exception. Asked what the secret was behind having a great 2006 at the age of 33, Paes said: “My five-month-old daughter… (After a pause) This is one of my best years professionally and personally. My first year of fatherhood, it’s a big learning experience… On court, Marty (Damm) and I reached the Australian final, Wimbledon semis and won US Open.”

Damm came in for huge praise. “I couldn’t have asked for a better partner, he’s turning out to be one of my best confidantes as well,” Paes said.

The goal now would be to prepare well in the winter season for the year-end Masters Championship in Shanghai. “Now that we have already qualified, we have to get ourselves ready. We’ll be playing three meets in the winter indoor season (Madrid, Lyon and Paris). This is one title I haven’t won...” Paes observed.