Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born June 7, 1974) is a retired Indian professional tennis player. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam tournament (with Rika Hiraki). With his win at the Australian Open mixed doubles in 2006, he joined the elite group of eight tennis players who have achieved a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles. He is also the founder of the International Premier Tennis League. In December 2016, Bhupathi was appointed as India's next non-playing Davis Cup captain and took over the reins from Anand Amritraj in February 2017. He is also a member of the Hon. Board of Advisors of IIMUN.
1995–2006
- Mahesh Bhupathi is known as one of the top doubles players in the 1990s and 2000s. In 1999, Bhupathi won three doubles titles with Leander Paes, including the French Open and Wimbledon. He and Paes became the first doubles team to reach the finals of all four Grand Slams, the first time such a feat has been achieved in the open era and the first time since 1952. On April 26, that year, they became the world's No. 1 doubles team. Bhupathi also won the US Open mixed doubles with Ai Sugiyama of Japan.
- In 2006, Bhupathi teamed with Martina Hingis in the Australian Open mixed doubles competition. Along the way, the first-time pair defeated four seeded opponents while only dropping one set.Bhupathi and Hingis won the championship in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, over the sixth-seeded team of Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva.It was the sixth mixed doubles Grand Slam for Bhupathi, and a first for Hingis. By winning the Australian Open, Bhupathi completed a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles.
2007–2008
- In 2007, Bhupathi and Radek tpánek reached the 2007 Australian Open men's doubles event's quarterfinals. At the 2007 French Open, Bhupathi teamed with tpánek to make the doubles semifinals, defeating two-year defending champions Jonas Björkman and Max Mirnyi in the quarterfinals. The team lost to the eventual champions, Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor.
- .. After Wimbledon, Bhupathi teamed with Pavel Vzner to win the 2007 Canada Masters, defeating the top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan en route. After this victory, he won a tournament in New Haven with Nenad Zimonji. At the 2007 US Open, he and Zimonji paired in doubles. The team that beat Bhupathi and tpánek in the French Open semifinals, Knowles and Nestor, split up. While Bhupathi became Knowles' partner, Zimonji became Nestor's, but back surgery meant he was out until the end of the year.
2009–2012
- In 2009, Bhupathi and compatriot Sania Mirza won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open, beating Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram, 6–3, 6–1, in the final. The Indian pair thus made up for the disappointment of the previous year's final, when they were beaten by Sun Tiantian and Nenad Zimonji. With this win, Bhupathi's count of mixed doubles Grand Slam titles increased to seven.
- Bhupathi broke up his partnership with Knowles and began playing once again with Max Mirnyi, with whom he played to win the 2002 US Open. In 2011, Bhupathi reunited with former playing partner Leander Paes for the 2011 Australian Open. The team reached the final, but lost 3–6, 4–6 to the Bryan brothers.
- On 7 June 2012, Bhupathi and Sania Mirza won the French Open mixed doubles On 4 November 2012, Bhupathi and partner Rohan Bopanna won the Paris Masters cup In spite of suffering a setback with their loss against Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen in the ATP Tour Finals opener, [10], the Indian duo reached the final round of the ATP Tour Finals, but suffered a defeat at the hands of Marcel Granollers and Marc López.
2013
Bhupathi and Bopanna played with different partners for the first three months of 2013, with Bhupathi winning the tournament in Dubai in March with Michal Llodra, but they rejoined starting with the Monte-Carlo Masters. [
