“My father won a medal in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and he played field hockey. My mother on the other hand — captain of the Indian basketball team. Every Sunday, I used to wake up and polish my dad's Olympic medal. I wanted to play for India and represent 1.3 billion Indians to prove that we could be Olympic champions in an individual sport.
Tennis was my vehicle and if I wanted to get to the Olympics, I really had to persevere. In the summer of 1990, I won Junior Wimbledon. In 1990, I met another young Indian kid. I said to him, “Would you like to win Wimbledon?” He laughed at me and he said, "You're crazy." I said, "I know I'm crazy, but would you like to win Wimbledon or not?" He said, "Sure, teach me.” Nine years later, we won Wimbledon, and that's what Breakpoint is all about.
I realized that this journey that I’d embarked on with Mahesh was that we could actually be the best in the world. I gave up my singles career to prove to India that we could be the best in the world i...