Break Point: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi reveal story behind their iconic 'chest bump'

ZEE5’s Original series Break Point which is a docudrama series on tennis legends Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi has made fans excited as ever. The series follows the career and life of the legends, it will not only construct their epic tennis matches but also deconstruct their relationship, both on and off the court. Break Point is a seven-part series and ahead of that, Leander and Mahesh spoke about their iconic chest bump which has gone down in the history.

Paes stated that Mahesh was very introverted and quiet. He revealed that their opponents would always attack him and Leander would be the one out there fighting against the bullies like he did when he was in school. 

He further shared, "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 recalled one of their earlier matches, when he was at the net and looked back at Mahesh after a point, and saw him quiet. Paes thought that he has to rattle Bhupathi up a bit otherwise they are not going to win this match."

Leander added, "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."

While Mahesh added, "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. 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."

Created by Nitesh Tiwari and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Break Point is streaming on ZEE5 from October 1, 2021.