Leander Paes dropped the hints, regarding his joining in ‘Indian Aces’ next season, by making a comment on IPTL saying that it would have the similar impact in Tennis, like IPL had in Cricket.
 
Speaking on the issue, Paes said, “IPTL showcases tennis and it showcases with top players. A country, which is starved to see quality players, as many times as we can motivate people, it will be good. IPTL is doing to tennis in India what IPL did to cricket. If stands were full, it would have been fantastic. I am surprised to see lack of turn-out.”

Paes' team won its first match of the season and it was his men's doubles win with Pierre- Hugues Herbert that did the turnaround yesterday.

Leander Paes said the owners of the Indian team are well aware of what he can do in the men's doubles and hinted that he may join Indian Aces next season.

Hinting about his joining, Paes said, “I met the owners and the sponsors and they said that the team is winning but still losing the men's doubles set. They said that, my team wins doubles game but loses matches and asked me to play for them next year.”

After the match, Paes said that, he was willing to play with Federer and Nadal.

When Paes was asked about his feeling of playing on the own soil for the foreign team, he said, “I would love to play for India. This Indian team won the IPTL and they wanted to continue with the same combination. It's great to be back in India and get on board. We won the first match of the season. Dubai have depth and it was good playing against them today than two days later, when they will have Federer. I am happy to get the team on a roll (with his doubles win).”

The team management opted Frenchman Herbert, to play with Mirjana Lucic, in the mixed doubles and speaking about this, Paes expressed his willingness to play there, but opined that, even Herbert is playing the game well.

By Phani Ch