Photo: Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc
Flying the Flag ROHAN BOPANNA Rohan Bopanna is India’s shining star. He has been a part of our Davis cup team since 2002. He recently won the Asian games gold medal in doubles for India and is a recipient of the Arjuna Award. His career high ranking in doubles was No.3 in the world in 2013. As recently as last year, Bopanna won the mixed doubles and his first Grand Slam title at the French Open. In the exclusive interview with Advantage Tennis, Bopanna reflects on his career and his goals and plans for the future. You have been a successful doubles player and one of India’s top doubles players. At the age of 38, you have won 17 ATP doubles titles, one mixed doubles Grand Slam title and most recently, the Asian games gold medal. Is there more to come? Thank you very much. Yes it has been a very good doubles career indeed. The most important thing for me is that I am still competing at a high level and enjoying playing tennis. Now my aim is to keep winning bigger titles like the Master Series
and the Grand Slams. I still believe in my game so yes, I would say there is surely more to come. The mixed doubles title at the 2017 French Open made you only the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam title. How does that make you feel? As a tennis player you dream to win Grand Slams, so winning my first slam in 2017 was truly a big and special moment (I think it took about 24 hours for it to sink in) The incredible amount of messages which I received from friends, family
and well wishers was overwhelming and everything sank in only when I was on the flight when all the phones were off and I had time for myself to really sit back and recollect that moment. All this just makes it so special. Its my mantra, that if you believe in yourself anything is truly possible. You and Aisam–ul-Haq Qureshi from Pakistan had an excellent partnership and found success for quite some years. You even made it into the top 10 as a team on the
Advantage Tennis Grand Slam Yearbook 2019
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