A Switch to Gold for BOPANNA-SHARAN

On August 24, 2018, exactly 5 months and 20 days after turning 38, Rohan Bopanna finally won his first medal, incidentally his first Gold for India at the Asian Games.

A double worth its gold for Rohan Boponna

A month later on September 25th, he bagged the honour that had eluded him – Arjuna Award, and with that ticked off two key boxes on his career graph.

At 38, Bopanna is the oldest to win his first Asiad medal in tennis. Such has been his career, especially when it came to opportunities to represent India.

Success with the Indian flag has mostly come on the Davis Cup circuit for Bopanna. So those precious moments on top of the podium at Palembang, the oldest Indonesian city that hosted tennis, was special to the Coorgi lad. “It’s very special as it was my first medal and that it was gold medal made it more special. I was unfortunate to miss the last two Games and I am glad that I could be part of it this time around,” reflected Bopanna.

With the former World No. 3 leading the gold quest in the absence of veteran Leander Paes, who pulled out in the last minute, the potential returns expected didn’t change.

Only a few dynamics as to who will make the second doubles team had to be figured out. There were, however, no doubts with regards to India’s first team in men’s doubles despite Paes’ pullout, unhappy with the team selection.

“Coming here as a seeded pair, we used it as a capital to be consistent and strive to win. However, the key is fighting together as a team,” noted Bopanna, who turned pro in 2003 and played his first Davis Cup match for India in 2002. For him it took nearly 16 years to proudly hold the

BHAGYA IYYAVOO

Bopanna and Sharan with the 2018 Asian Games Gold Medals in Jakarta-Palembang

tricolour high as he went up on the podium along with Sharan to accept the medal.

Bopanna never had it easy, when it came to representing India at the Games. He achieved his first ATP doubles title in 2008, and from there on his career expanded. This Karnataka star lived in the shadows of Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. He always had to do something extra to stand out. So, when the partnership with Pakistan star Aisamul-Haq Qureshi came by, the Indo-Pak Express took off and so did Bofors career.

With Indian Express duo of Paes and Bhupathi in the peak of their careers, opportunities to represent India in multi-nation events like the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the Olympics besides the Davis Cup were far and few. And at times, a few personal decisions too played a part.

For someone, who has represented India in Davis Cup for a decade and a half, he had only a couple of chances to represent India at these Games, sometimes it was hard to grab a spot in the first team and on other instances he had made himself unavailable for national duty. Bopanna’s best attempt at Asiad before Palembang was reaching the quarterfinals in men’s doubles at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and the last 8 of the men’s team event at the 2002 Busan edition. No medal to show on his impressive resume which now has a Grand Slam title too, thanks to the French Open triumph in 2017 with Gabriela Dabrowski, becoming only the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam title.

In this backdrop, with Bopanna

and Sharan India fielded a pair that hadn’t played much together. Following his injury at the Wimbledon Championships, the senior partner, whose participation was in doubt until he reached Palembang, competed at the Asian Games without any competitive match.

“Going into the tournament, I didn’t feel 100 percent. But before the first round I felt good with Divij. I felt very confident out there. We combined well and we had a great camaraderie.”

After a couple of easy rounds, the first big challenge came from Hsieh Chengpeng and Yang Tsung-Hua of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.

The Indians were up for it and by winning the crucial points made their way into the medal round.

“In the quarters, once we lost the tie-break, we played with a high percentage of first serves and we had the control and were able to win that match comfortably,” said Bopanna reflecting on their 6-3, 5-7, 10-1 win over the Taiwanese duo.

“Every match together made us stronger. And the fact that we shared a good camaraderie helped us come through close matches in the quarterfinals and semifinals,” added Bopanna singing praises of his left-handed partner.

Then against Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro and Kaito Uesugi in the last-four match, they were made to work hard for almost every point.

However with their experience, Bopanna and Divij were able to lift their game and pull out of it unscathed. Final score read 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 but that roller-coaster victory actually set the tone for the gold medal finish.

In a telephonic chat with Advantage Tennis, Bofors elaborated on the turning point.

“In the semis, we were a set down and we decided to swap sides. I was on the AD court and then moved to the DEUCE court after that. We came out with a plan and we had to break their rhythm in some way. So I told Divij let’s switch sides and see how it goes as we were definitely there to fight and win the match. We didn’t plan to do that, it just happened in the one and a half minutes during the break.

“They had a set pattern and probably knew what to do when they saw us play in the previous rounds. But when we switched, they were completely rattled.

“The fact that at one set down we changed sides and this has never happened in tennis. Tennis players very rarely do that. The last time this happened was in 2012 (partnering Mahesh Bhupathi). When you’re constantly beating them and when the opponents want to throw you off your game, some try it.”

After that, there was no looking back for the top seeds as they cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 victory against the Kazakhstan pair of Aleksandr Bublik and Denis Yevseyev in the gold medal match in just 52 minutes.

The rise of Divij Sharan

Many got inspired to play tennis after watching Paes and Bhupathi, Sharan’s career too took off on that note. However, podium finish is nothing new to the left-hander as he had partnered Yuki Bhambri and won the men’s doubles bronze at the Incheon Games in South Korea.

But this medal definitely stands out and ‘it is right up there’ for the Delhi southpaw. The 32-year-old has risen in the last few years improving his rank and with impressive results on the tour, despite opportunities for representing India hardly coming his way. Sharan has played just one Davis Cup tie for India in 2012.

As Sharan puts it, “Getting something like this is very meaningful.”

New faces shine with Bronze

Ramkumar Ramanathan was India’s best bet at the men’s singles event. Ranked 118 in the world then and seeded No.2 in the depleted men’s draw of 64 at the Jakabaring Tennis Centre, the Tamil Nadu lad was expected to at least assure India a medal, if not repeat Somdev Devvarman’s gold-medal-winning show at the Guangzhou Games eight years back in 2010.

But Ram crashed out in the prequarterfinals, losing to Uzbekistan’s Karimov Jurabek 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and it was left-handed Pragnesh Gunneswaran, who made the most of the opportunity to seal a medal with a bit of help. In the quarterfinals against South Korea’s Kwon Soonwoo, the Prajnesh was down with cramps after squandering four match points from 6-2 in the tie-break. When the skies opened up and play was halted for 20 minutes, giving time enough for the Indian to recover and the medal was assured when he came back and served out the match, surviving a match point. Prajnesh settled for bronze after losing his men’s singles semi-final to Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 2-6, 2-6.

And in the women’s category, Ankita Raina, the only girl to have featured at the Games before, in the absence of soon-to-be-mom Sania Mirza, put her hand up and delivered. A bronze in the women’s singles competition is a certification for the 25-year-old’s growth in the past one year. India’s No.1 player in women’s singles presently, fought hard in the semi-finals before settling for bronze against China’s Zhang Shuai. Ankita lost 4-6, 6-7 (6) in a gruelling contest that lasted a little over two hours. Ankita is only the second Indian woman to win a singles medal at the Asian Games, after Mirza. Sania’s silver medal at the 2006 Doha Games is still India’s best effort in women’s singles. Sania also picked up a bronze in the following edition at Guangzhou in 2010.

Overall, it was a pretty good

campaign. Still, the count could have been a lot more at Palembang. At Incheon Games, four years ago, India had returned home with 5 medals. With India’s growing stature in singles and with most of the countries fielding second string teams India had its chance to bag more than one medal in men’s singles, with the likes of Ramkumar and Prajnesh in the ranks.

India coach Zeeshan Ali admitted that they missed out on a couple of medals. “The target was a medal in all five events. Ram was a big disappointment in singles. Expected a lot from the second seed, he had been playing good tennis over the last six months. Disappointed that he played a wrong tactical match, doing things that he was not comfortable doing (serve and volley). There was a medal prospect right there,” reflected Ali.

“It was pretty good considering the last minute pull-out, not having our number one men’s singles player (Yuki Bhambri), number one women’s doubles player (Sania Mirza) and Leander not coming. With the team that we had, we did okay.”

India have been favourites in the men’s double competition since 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima when Paes won with Gaurav Natekar, and opened his account as a 21-year-old. Since then, Paes remains the most successful Indian men’s doubles player with 8 medals, including 5 gold. And with Bhupathi (back-toback gold medals in the 2002 and 2006 Games) he makes India’s most successful men’s doubles duo in Asiad history.

Among racquet sports, tennis has traditionally been Indian’s strongest point at the Asiad since the sport was included in 1958. With three medals at the 2018 edition, the tally is now 32 medals, far ahead of badminton and squash that have just 10 and 13, respectively.

Is Indian tennis on track for Tokyo Olympics?

Performance in Games like these is always used to measure up players. There are many Indians presently active on the tour not just in doubles, but also in singles. There’s a healthy bunch of youngsters who are rising up the ranks too. It is too early to

start the debate as to whether we have the talent to win an Olympic medal. But we can safely say that Indian tennis is looking up and the attitude of players look promising.

For instance, Bopanna has represented India in doubles at two Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016 under controversial circumstances. Whether he will be available for the next Olympics is still debatable. But if he maintains his level and retains a healthy doubles ranking he will be the one to lead the way in the doubles events. Like most athletes on the wrong side of the 30s, he is going to be a step slower with time. On July 24, 2020 when Tokyo Olympics kicks off he will be 40 and it will be a challenge to step up.

“It is at least 6 Grand Slams away, so I have to continue doing well in the ATP tournaments and these Grand Slams. When Olympics comes around, definitely that will be a priority… to win a medal.” Bopanna may have the opportunity to win that elusive medal in doubles that the Lee-Hesh combo couldn’t get. Will he create that opportunity for himself? Only time will tell.