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2023 has indeed been a quiet year for Rohan Bopanna. He reached the mixed doubles final at the Australian Open alongside Sania Mirza in her groundbreaking bye. At age 43, he then became the oldest player to win an ATP 1000 tournament, partnering Australian Matthew Ebden for the Indian Wells title. A return to the top ten – he’s now in eleventh – eventually followed.
Yet despite what he has achieved, there is a tinge of loneliness that creeps in. “I keep telling Sanya that I miss her on tour,” he tells The Indian Express from London, as he prepares to play Wimbledon for the 13th time. . “Tennis is already an isolated sport, it would be nice to have other players from your country to share this space.”
Sports such as tennis do not have the capacity to stir up hyper-nationalist frenzy as cricket today, or hockey in the past. The new effect of the Olympics is also missing. Therefore, it can be easy to forget that underperformance has not always been the norm in Indian tennis.
Not long ago, Bopanna joined on the tour with doubles specialists who had multiple major slams, and a women’s singles player who cracked the top 30 in the world. In retrospect, the Indians reached the singles quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the Davis Cup final.
But if India overachieved in tennis in the past, they are clearly underachieving today. India has one singles player who is ranked in the top 200 players in the world – Ankita Raina, who is ranked 197th. After Raina lost in the first round of singles qualifiers, with no injuries to others resulting in substitutes, Bopanna will be seeded sixth alongside Ebden in doubles Guys, the only Indian in SW19 this year.
“At the age of 43, to say that I am the only player to represent India at Wimbledon is very disappointing,” he said.
“For 20 years I have been on tour, and the sport has not developed in the country. Unfortunately, the federation has not guaranteed a structure and a system. You can host one Challenger here, one tournament there, but there is no structure, no way for promising players at the under-12 level, And under 14 to build on their journey, there’s no way to create itineraries for them.”
He added, “I really hope that changes, because we needed that change yesterday.”
Bopanna believes that the burden should not fall on Indian players to go abroad to develop their careers, giving the example of Ben Chilton, who is ranked 35th in the American world. Shilton had already cracked the top 100 before leaving his country. His first visit abroad was to attend the Australian Open this year, where he reached the singles quarter-finals.
The doubles veteran is disappointed that this year, India has lost the only ATP event it has hosted for the past 27 years, as well as the WTA event held in Chennai last year, and other than the Grand Slams and ATP 1000 events, tennis is not. televised in India. “In any sport, only if you watch it will you be inspired,” he said.
Regarding his figure and physique, Bhopana is optimistic. He came to Wimbledon in as good a form as he has been for many years. Even after more than two decades on tour, and serious injuries that have sidelined him for a long time and decimated the cartilage in his knees, he says his competitiveness and mental toughness have kept him hungry.
Even if the surface is physically rough, given his past experience and likeness to turf, he fancy his chances in SW19.
“To be honest, that surface is the hardest on the body. With the ball still low and I have no cartilage in my knee, the pain after playing is much higher,” said the former French Open champion. “But we’ve played a lot of Davis Cup ties on grass back home, so so I’m more used to it, and this experience definitely helps.”
It’s a busy second half of the year for Bhopana, who will then go to the US in preparation for the US Open, and immediately return to India for what will be his final Davis Cup match in Lucknow – which he would have liked to play at home in Bangalore. He then travels to Hangzhou to defend his Asian Games title.
“For an athlete to have competed for so long and represented your country for over 20 years is definitely a proud moment.”
It wasn’t too early to look forward to one last push for the Olympics. India’s qualification remains uncertain. With an insufficient combined ranking, the singles player will need to reach the final in Asia, or Bubanna will need to maintain his place in the top 10 of the ATP rankings.
“Of course I would love to play in Paris,” he said, “but there is no certainty about who I will play with.” “It would be really sad if we didn’t have representation from the state.”
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