Leander Paes, the proprietor of 18 Grand Slam titles in males’s doubles or combined doubles, is the primary Asian man to be nominated for the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame within the participant class.
India’s Paes was one in all six participant candidates introduced Tuesday for the Class of 2024, together with returning nominees Cara Black, Ana Ivanovic, Carlos Moya, Daniel Nestor and Flavia Pennetta.
Li Na, a Chinese language lady who received two Grand Slam singles titles, turned the primary Asian participant within the shrine primarily based in Newport, Rhode Island, when she was inducted in 2019.
“After three many years of ardour for our sport and enjoying for 1.3-plus billion Indians within the Olympics and Davis Cup, I’m thrilled that my onerous work has been recognised,” Paes stated.
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The poll for 2024 additionally contains two contributor class candidates: Vijay Amritraj and journalist Richard Evans.
Paes received profession Grand Slams in each males’s doubles and combined doubles and reached the No. 1 doubles rating. His eight males’s doubles main championships — earned with 4 totally different companions — have been unfold out this manner: three apiece on the French Open and U.S. Open, and one apiece on the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
His combined doubles Slam trophies got here alongside varied companions, together with Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis and Black.
Black, Ivanovic, Moya, Nestor and Pennetta all fell in need of the required 75% of the vote in previous balloting from the official voting group — which incorporates media, historians, Corridor of Famers and business specialists — and bonus proportion factors awarded primarily based on a fan vote. Nominees can stay in competition for 3 years.
This 12 months’s on-line fan voting for the participant class runs from Wednesday to Oct. 9.
The Corridor’s Class of 2023 members — wheelchair star Esther Vergeer and quad division pioneer Rick Draney — have been enshrined in July.