After winning his first Grand Slam men's doubles title in five years at the US Open, Leander Paes has his eyes firmly set on the Doha Asian Games and has not ruled out taking the court in singles competition at the quadrennial mega event.
"I still love playing singles and still feel really fit to continue my duties in Davis Cup and Asian Games or Olympics. Singles is definitely not out of the question. It is a matter of whether the body is ready for it just when the time is calling," Paes said.
The Indian ace was speaking after teaming up with Czech Republic's Martin Damm for the 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3 final victory over Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi of Belarus at Flushing Meadows on Saturday.
Paes was also looking forward to grabbing an Asian Games gold medal in Doha by teaming up with Sania Mirza in the mixed doubles.
"I would look forward to playing with her. I was surprised when four days ago in the gym, Sania came up and asked, 'Are you playing mixed doubles with me or what?'
"Last Asian Games, we got a bronze medal so there is lot of history in the partnership. It would be nice to share space on the court and hope we can do it better and come home with a gold," he told NDTV.
The US Open victory of Paes and Damm sealed their spot at the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai and Paes was expecting a good performance in the Chinese port city.
"It (qualification) is fantastic. I enjoy my partnership with Martin and look forward to the Masters Cup with him."
Paes lavished praise on his partner with whom he had joined forces at the beginning of the year.
"The biggest thing that actually has helped us win this tournament is our communication. We're actually opposites on the court. Martin is strong and plays more solid. I'm flashier and a bit quicker. We really complement each other. It's been a fantastic year playing with him," he said.
Paes said the final was a very close encounter and they had such tough matches with Bjorkman and Mirnyi in the past as well.
"We have really some tough matches against them. They are two wonderful ambassadors of the game of tennis and are fantastic talents.
"I knew we had a job at hand because both Max and Bjorkman were serving excellently well. Max was serving at 140 miles per hour and it was almost impossible to get a racket on that. We were lucky to find a way to fight back and as the match went on, we got better and sharper," the Indian ace said of the two hour 35 minute match.
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