Rohan Bopanna
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Career highlights
2024: Bopannam 43, makes history as oldest World No. 1 in doubles
Prajwal Hegde, January 25, 2024: The Times of India
At 43, Bopanna makes history as oldest World No. 1 in doubles
Melbourne : Rohan Bopanna’s pepper-salt beard speaks of a durability that has survived the test of time. At age 43, he will be the oldest ATP doubles No.1 in history when the new rankings come out.
Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden scored a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over sixth-seeded Argentines, Maximo Gonzalez and Andreas Molteni, in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
The match that started on Court No. 3 was continued and finished on the Marga ret Court Arena because the players spotted bubbles on the court, which toyed with the bounce, forcing the last eight clash to be shifted across the grounds.
Bopanna and Ebden, 36, have the same number of ATP doubles rankings points now, but Bopanna will be No. 1 because he has played three fewer tournaments.
Bopanna came into the tournament as the world No. 3 in the individual doubles ranking, having equalled his career-high of July 2013.
Ebden, who wasn’t aware Bopanna would claim the top spot in the rankings with a win on Wednesday, lifted his partner to celebrate during the on-court interview. “It’s an incredible testament,” Ebden, 36 said. “It would’ve been easy for him to think, I’ll just have another decent year and retire in the next couple of years, but I asked him to commit fully. He pushed himself. We pushed each other. He pushed me to improve. We both improved. We worked hard together. This is a testament of all that, and incredible effort.”
On Wednesday Bopanna was a picture of calm even minutes before he stepped on the match court. He was chatting with his team or just hanging back, hands crossed behind him, watching everyone around him, as if he were in his daughter’s nursery instead of a Grand Slam arena.
On the court, it was hard to read the score on the 43-year-old’s face. He wears equanimity like it was custom-made.
But when the 6’4’’ Indian made calls for the second seeds, telling his Australian partner Ebden that it was his shot to take, Bopanna went, ‘you’, ‘you’, ‘you’ like a stuttering starting pistol.
The edge in his voice was sharper than the bruising Melbourne sun. At the Margaret Court Arena on Wednesday, pitted against the Argentines, it was the keenness in his voice that pointed at his nerves.
“I have no cartilages on my knees, they are completely worn out. So, if there’s somebody hitting a dropshot, I’ll say, ‘you’. I don’t go up there,” Bopanna said, laughing to underline his point. “Anyone will be quicker than me.”
No sooner had Bopanna called ‘you’ and Ebden was sprinting, chasing pelt. Bopanna’s second coming has been inspirational in the sporting context and beyond given that he was contemplating retirement in April 2021.
The Indian’s first seven tournament out ings in 2021 had come with six different partners and his win-loss record for the season was a dismal 0-7. Bopanna was walking down the Costa do Estoril coastline after his seventh successive first-round loss on a Tuesday in April, it was late in the evening and the darkness inside him wouldn’t lift.
“I told myself exactly where I was on this journey,” Bopanna said. “When I was not winning a match, when you go five months without winning a match, it is difficult. The tour is lonely anyway and when you’re not winning matches it gets even harder. The only people I spoke to were my wife (Supriya) and coach Scott Davidoff,” he said.
“The focus was to enjoy myself. As I trained, I told myself as long as I was enjoying myself, of course losing is no fun, but if you are happy on the job, everyday it helps. I tried to smile, to be happy.” That was the beginning. In the semifinals on Thursday, the No. 2 seeds will play Czech Tomas Machac and China’s Zhang Zhizhen.
Records and statistics
Oldest slam finalist of the Open era/ 2023
Prajwal Hegde, Sep 8, 2023: The Times of India
New York : Rohan Bopanna is 43 and owning it. Playing in unforgiving conditions, the 6-foot-4-inch Bangalorean, in tandem with the rock-solid Aussie Matthew Ebden, made the US Open men’s doubles final. The sixth seeds rallied to beat the French pair of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 7-6 (3), 6-2.
Bopanna, in the final here in New York 13 years after his maiden charge in the men’s doubles in 2010, became the oldest Grand Slam finalist of the Open Era. At 43 years and 6 months, he beat Daniel Nestor’s record. “Great energy from the crowd, thank you guys for coming,” Bopanna said. “Back in the final 13 years later, I love New York.”
Ebden made no secret of the team’s intention, saying they are going for the title. “We are playing for the big titles,” he said.
The conditions were extreme, the roof was partially drawn over the Louis Armstrong stadium. The 41-year-old Mahut came down on the court when he was serving in the 12th game. He complained of dizziness. Play was stalled for four minutes when the physio and doctor came on court to attend to the Frenchman.
Bopanna and Ebden came back from a break down in the opening set, levelling at 4-4 when Mahut double faulted at 15-40. The IndoAussie combine, who were made to play by the Frenchmen, came on top in the tie-break. The sixth-seeded pairing broke in the third game of the second set, and then got an insurance break in the fifth game.
2015
World Tour Final
Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau picked a shade without sizzle for their final encounter of the Barclays ATP World Tour Final. A blue that saw them merge into the soft setting of the O2 Arena.Just as well that their play provided the shine and sparkle, riding to a 6-4, 6-3 win over Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea to clinch the year-end trophy and claim the title of the no.1 team in the world. Bopanna, in his second final here, having made the title round with Bhupathi in 2012, had two doublefaults and two aces in his opening service game. He fought off a breakpoint (30-40) before a Rojer backhand volley earned the world no.1 pairing the early break of serve.
2017
See graphic.
2023
Bids farewell to Davis Cup on a winning note
Sep 18, 2023: The Times of India
India resumed normal service to seal a comprehensive 4-1 win over Morocco, and with it a place in the 2024 World Group I playoff of the Davis Cup, in Lucknow.
After the drama of the opening day which saw debutant Mukund Sasikumar retire with cramps in the opening singles, Sunday’s action proved to be uneventful and went by form at the Vijayant Khand Mini stadium. Rohan Bopanna, playing his last tie, ensured his Davis Cup career ended on a winning note as he combined with Yuki Bhambri to beat Elliot Benchetrit and Younes Lalami Laaroussi 6-2, 6-1 to put the hosts ahead 2-1. Sumit Nagal then clinched the tie for India with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Yassine Dlimi. In the inconsequential fifth rubber, Digvij ay Pratap Singh, also playing his first tie, edged Walid Ahouda 6-1, 5-7 (10-6). Rohit Rajpal’s team will now play against one of the 12 losing teams from World Group I in February.
It was an emotional moment for Bopanna who played his first tie in 2002 against an Australian side spearheaded by Lleyton Hewitt in a World Group first round tie in Adelaide.
After 36 nominations an d 33 ties played, the 43-year-old and current doubles World No. 7 bows out with a 22-27 win-loss record -10-17 in singles and 12-10 in doubles. The man of the moment, however, was Nagal. The Wor ld No. 156 proved his maturity over the two days.
On Saturday, playing after Mukund had conceded the opening singles, Nagal poured water on any hopes Morocco might have nurtured of pulling off an upset by dispatching the 28-year-old Adam Moundir, a typical journeyman on the pro circuit, in an hour and 15 minutes. He needed a little more than that, an hour and 45 minutes, on Sunday to put it past Dlimi.
“Very different players. One (Moundir) goes for his shots and the other (Dlimi) is a baseliner. I knew what I had to do, and I had watched Dlimi play yesterday, which was a big help,” Nagal said. The 26-year-old from Haryana shares a rapport with Mukund. Watching a teammate’s maiden Cup appearance end on a disappointing note, especially just before one had to go out on court, might have been a distraction for anyone but Nagal handled it professionally. “I had mixed feelings. I struggled to finish my first match for India. But I had to do my own stuff,” he said.
2024
Career peaks with His First Grand Slam Title At 43
[ January 28, 2024: The Times of India]
From: [ January 28, 2024: The Times of India]
BOPANNA COMES OF AGE!
TIMES IN MELBOURNE
Wins His First Grand Slam Title At 43, Making Him The Oldest Ever To Achieve The Feat
Prajwal.Hegde@timesgroup.com
Melbourne : Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were laughing hysterically as they fell on their backs at the Rod Laver Arena. They lay there for a bit, looking up at the starlit Melbourne sky, before getting back on their feet for a signature chest bump.
Bopanna — now the oldest men’s doubles Grand Slam champion in history — and Ebden clinched the Australian Open men’s doubles title with a 7-6 (7-0), 7-5 win over the Italian pairing of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori on Saturday. “What an amazing tournament,” Ebden said, not wasting a moment in applauding his partner, the tournament’s feel-good story. “Thanks to my partner Rohan. He’s 43 years old and this is his first men’s Grand Slam doubles win. Age truly is not a number for this guy. He’s young at heart, he’s a champion, he’s a warrior.”
Bopanna typically started his speech with, ‘good evening everyone’. The Kodava then paid tribute to Melbourne Park, saying, “For me to win the Australian Open, the Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific, with an Australian partner is like winning the home Slam.”
Bopanna, who reached out to his wife Supriya and daughter Tridha, added “I want to thank my coach Scott Davidoff, he’s been with me for over a decade, and he has never stopped believing. It’s been a tough, tough journey. This victory is as much mine as it is yours, Scotty.”
The Indian felt the weight go off his shoulders the moment he closed out the match. “You don’t think of how you’re going to celebrate. At first, I was just thinking, don’t miss that smash. It was probably the easiest smash on match point ever,” the 43-year-old said of the biggest day of his sporting life. “It was a huge relief, especially in my case. For years and years I’ve been trying to get there. But to still be at it, working day in, day out and getting rewarded is great.”
Ebden said: “I saw him collapse, and then I was, like, oh, yeah, I’m going to lie down and just enjoy this moment too. Yeah, a special moment. I saw the smash go up for a sitter, I was, like, oh, this is over. These are the moments we play for. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t happy, excited, wanting to win the big titles.”
Bopanna and Ebden, in mismatched outfits and coordinated, well-oiled approach, played a flawless tie-breaker to take the first set, where neither team broke serve for 51-minutes. The first and only break of the final came in the 11th game of the second set when the 28-year-old Vavassori was broken at love, leaving Ebden to serve out the match for the No.2 seeds.
Ebden had a double-fault that sent every supporter at the Rod Laver Arena gasping. A whole minute later, a Bopanna volley gave them two match points. The second seeds only needed one.
