There are lessons to be imbibed from this victory. For Paes and Bhupathi, it rewarded the tremendous discipline with which they set about achieving their target. This was by no means easy. Tennis is essentially an individual's game. Playing doubles, in contrast, imposes a certain discipline on the player because of the element of give and take it entails. It means that the ego hassles and frictions that can mar any relationship in the field, even one as close as that between Paes and Bhupathi, cannot be allowed to destroy what is a joint project. On Sunday, both the young players gave everything they had to their game, all the while encouraging each other along. Playing at that level requires more than stamina and a felicity in the game. It requires killer instinct. Commentators had always maintained that Indians lacked this quality, that they were regarded great gentlemen on court, but never real winners. Paes and Bhupathi blasted this thesis sky high on Sunday. In the course of the winningmatch, they clawed their way back into the reckoning after losing the opening set 6-7. With well-placed serve and volley, they exploited the weaknesses in their opponents and powered their way through. There is a lesson in this victory for the nation too. Ironically, what seems to have helped the duo a great deal was the absence of hype over tennis championships. Unlike the adulation and wrath that cricketers have to routinely face in this country, Paes and Bhupathi were left alone to play their game as they saw fit, unshackled by the great and unreal expectations of their compatriots.

Every victory of such a significant nature has its own spin-offs and they must be carefully harvested. Certainly this feat of winning two Grand Slam titles in a row will help power tennis back on to the radar screens of an entire generation in this country. And there cannot be a better tribute to the two young bravehearts on centre court than this.