Rohan Bopanna hopes to build on fresh momentum at Australian Open

At the start of the 2021 season, it took Rohan Bopanna seven tournaments and four months to merely get a “W” next to his name. Two weeks into this season, India’s highest-ranked doubles pro has already won five matches, heading into the Australian Open with the ATP 250 Adelaide title as a booster. 

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“Starting the season with a title is extremely nice,” world No 43 Bopanna, who pocketed his 20th ATP doubles title in Adelaide last Sunday partnering compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan, said from Melbourne. “But the important thing simply is that I am playing tennis. That is a big positive already.” 

That wasn’t the case this time last year. Coming off months of lockdown in 2020, Bopanna landed in Melbourne only to be stuck in hard quarantine for two weeks as he was on one of the chartered flights that had Covid positive cases. He was forced to hunt for a last-minute partner too for the season-opening Grand Slam. This time, Bopanna and French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin have had a few good practice sessions at Melbourne Park to tune-up after losing in the opening round of the second Adelaide event.

The surroundings are vastly different too. The 41-year-old has his family with him this year, exploring Australia more with his daughter and wife - a world apart from last year when he was alone in a room for two weeks watching Netflix, videos and cricket.     

“Having my family around helps a lot. At the end of the day, it’s not just about tennis. When I go to the tennis court it is work, but when I come back, everything is different and revolves around the kid. I get to see the city a lot more because we are trying to show our daughter more new things. Your mind is more at ease. And then when you go on a tennis court, you end up playing better,” he said. 

Winding up his 2021 season in October, Bopanna shifted focus to his off-season training, which comprised trips to his own Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy in Bengaluru for three weeks. “I hit with anybody who was there,” he said. “I did my fitness and played tennis with the kids there.” 

For the period he was there, the academy coaches and Bopanna decided to invite budding players from around the country for any number of days, to pick up the nuances of what goes into off-season training and other aspects of competing at the top level from the 2017 French Open mixed doubles champion. A WhatsApp group was created to inform the players and Bopanna sent a text.     

“There was not even one reply,” Bopanna said. “Apparently there was a lot of interest but no one came, which was disheartening. And these were not our first rung Davis Cuppers; they were national players trying to work their way up. Everyone wants to be a top tennis player, but they are not making the commitment to even travel within India to learn. 

“It’s unfortunate that there is nobody else from India currently playing Grand Slam main draws apart from Sania (Mirza) and myself. We should have more. It comes down to who is willing to put in that work week in week out and sustain it for years. It’s not about 1-2 years; it’s about doing the same things over and over again, pushing yourself to the limit, challenging yourself." 

After almost two decades on the professional tour, Bopanna still finds joy in doing that. “I like competing. I love playing at the big stage. That is what really drives me,” he said. 

And constantly evolving in his hunt for new objectives; for example, ending a two-year title drought, having previously won in Doha in 2020 before Adelaide. “I keep trying to push myself to see where I can take it. It had been a couple of years since I won, so I said, ‘OK, let me try and push for that’. The biggest thing that I get energised by is to have the ability to sustain myself playing at a high level, the highest tournaments and keeping my ranking there as much as possible. I feel my perseverance has taken me to where I am today.” 

Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin - they won a title together in 2013 - will take on wild cards Treat Huey and Christopher Rungkat in the doubles first round that begins on Wednesday. Bopanna will pair up with Croatian world No 9 Darija Jurak in mixed doubles. Winning a title coming into a Grand Slam puts a spring in the step, but it will be back to love-all at Melbourne Park.     

“The conditions will be different in Melbourne from Adelaide. It starts from scratch again,” he said. “But playing six matches and winning five definitely helps. From the last 12 months to now, I’m much more confident going into the tournament.”

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