India's Davis Cup captain Leander Paes is busy finalizing a new doubles partner for the next season.
Without spilling out names of any contenders or the reason for discontinuing his partnership with David Rikl, Paes said confirming a doubles partner for 2005 is his priority at the moment.
"I am in the process of confirming my doubles partner for 2005," Paes said in Mumbai on Thursday.
He was in the city for the announcement of the ABN AMRO Tennis Challenge, in which India's top eight tennis players will vie for a wild card entry to the ABN AMRO Rotterdam ATP Tournament in 2005.
Paes, currently ranked 13 in the ATP doubles rankings, tried out a few players in 2004 and also staged a comeback with Mahesh Bhupathi in preparation for the Athens Olympics. The two Indians immediately recreated the old magic on court, winning the Canada TMS Open in July.
With his Grand Slam partner Rikl of the Czech Republic, Paes won at Halle and Gstaad and reached the US Open final.
"Both are different, individual athletes and I have enjoyed playing with Mahesh [Bhupthi] for seven years and achieved great laurels with him and at the same time played with [David] Rikl and enjoyed laurels with him," Paes said.
Rikl is ranked ten places below Paes, but the Indian said that in team sport, the ability to compliment each other is more crucial in becoming a successful pair.
"I see it this way: it takes two to tango. When you play team sport I know that there will be some days when I'll play great and my partner won't, and some days when my partner will play great and I won't.
"In a team sport you are only as good as your teammate and that's something I have a lot of respect for."
Paes also featured in his fourth Olympics and came close to winning his second Olympic medal with Bhupathi, but a frantic last couple of games saw Croatia's Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic grab victory in the bronze medal doubles match.
"Competing in my fourth Olympics was a dream come true and I was pleased; it was unfortunate that we missed a medal there. We were very close but those are the cruelties of professional sport. It is very cut throat now and we did everything within our power but came out one point short," he said.
Terming 2004 as a "transition year", he said he was glad to return to peak physical and mental condition and leap into the top ten in doubles after spending eight months recovering from a cyst in the brain.
"I was coming after missing eight months from the 2003 calendar and also almost having lost my profession due to the ailment that I went through. At the same time it was magic, because not only have I got into perfect peak condition but also jumped back into the top 10 in doubles.
"Also, on saying that, the pinnacle of my career was getting through the Australian Open final with Martina, and the US Open final with David Rikl. Being a mixed doubles and doubles team respectively really showed that my physical condition, mental stability and peak performances are well intact for the new year."
