Iconic tennis stars Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes have opened up about their chest bump celebrations, in the upcoming documentary series ‘Break Point’.
Leander said: “Mahesh was very introverted and quiet. Our opponents would always attack him and I would be the one out there fighting against the bullies like I did when I was in school. I felt that I had to evoke a sense of physical aggression out of him. While Mahesh was in a shell and was quiet, I was pumping with adrenaline.”
Leander added that in one of their earlier matches, he was at the net and looked back at Mahesh after a point, and he was quiet.
He shared: “I thought I have to rattle him up a bit otherwise we are not going to win this match. I started running towards him and I could see his eyes getting scared. I just jumped up to his chest and I thumped him in his chest. And then it became a thing.”
“Whenever we were low on energy, we chest bumped. Whenever we were wanting to turn a match around, we chest bumped.”
Mahesh shared: “I am pretty sure that the first time we did the chest bump was when we played our first Davis Cup match together. Considering the height difference, everything between us was spontaneous. It worked.
He added: “In our minds, we were creating a new brand of doubles and it was apparent that people were coming to watch it. So we were enjoying it.”
The seven-part ZEE5 series is helmed by award-winning filmmaker-duo Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari, under their banner Earthsky Pictures.
It will be available on ZEE5 from October 1.