By Charanya Sreekirishnan

 

Rohan Bopanna is an Indian professional tennis player and Grand Slam champion who has carried the doubles mantle forward. He has won the Masters 1000 titles and has been an ATP regular. He has competed in doubles matches alongside some of India's top players, including Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, and a number of international tennis players. In 2007, Bopanna's combination with Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi earned the duo the title "Indo-Pak express," as the two received plaudits for their on-court coordination and friendship. In 2018, he received the Arjuna award for lawn tennis. Edited excerpts follow.

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Take me through your early experiences playing tennis. 

 

The early part of my tennis career began in a small part of the country called Coorg, mostly known as the land of Coffee. This is where I grew up in my parents’ house and there was a tennis court in a small club called Madapur club where I began my tennis my Dad was my initial coach who himself had learned the sport through reading a book. After lots of academies in the country, later on, did not select me for their program, I went to Pune for further coaching at the age of 14 in Nandan Bal tennis academy and coaches Balachandran (Balu sir) & Narendranath were the coaches. I trained there for 5years till the age of 19 and after that, I moved back to Bangalore and continued my training with Mr CGK Bhupathi ( Mahesh Bhupathi father) from then on my base was Bangalore and kept travelling for tournaments in and out from there. 

 

 

How has this season treated you?

 

This season has been definitely extremely good as far as winning a couple of titles with Ramkumar Ramanathan and also reaching the semi-finals of Roland Garros for the first time and getting back to the top 20 in the world ranking. So it has been a season of pushing limits beyond my expectations and really challenging my inner ability to play well at big events. 

 

 

What emotions do you go through during an especially tough match?

 

The emotions always keep changing constantly during the course of the match especially a tough one and the biggest thing for me which has worked is to focus on things to do and not on things not to do. As a player you need to trust the shots which you’re going to hit as their emotions at times want you to experiment with new shots but if not practised on the practice court before it will never work. So constantly breathing and trusting yourself helps those emotions. 

 

 

In many of your articles, you’ve mentioned you are ‘pain-free’. What held you from giving up while you were injured?

 

My biggest strength has been perseverance, so for me, I feel I need to keep challenging myself to get the best out of myself. For example, in 2019 I had lots of knee pain due to fully worn-out cartilage on my knees, so in 2020 I found an Iyengar yoga practice which helped me strengthen my legs without any pressure on my knees and became pain-free. Every tennis players always have niggles no matter which level of a player you are, but the main idea is how you overcome that and challenge yourself to keep getting better. 

 

 

What are your comments on injuries, age, and retirement, with different players around the world retiring for one of these reasons, especially with you overcoming these barriers and are back on track?

 

I think every player has to decide on how she or he feels and take an individual decision, No one should be there to influence that decision but only give you the best guidance for the player to help make the choices wisely. 

 

 

What according to you are some important traits a child should cultivate to be a sportsman?

 

The most important thing to remember for kids is that everyone who picks up a tennis racquet will not become a professional, It’s important to teach a kid good character first with a dream which has no limit, while this is in the process you teach also life skills with the attitude of not giving up, teaching failure which is part of the growth & in the end no matter how hard it pushes you down to keep getting back up and trying. 

 

 

What important life lessons from your parents have you found to be still helpful in your professional and personal life?

 

The biggest life lesson which I still use from my parents is to keep pushing beyond my limits and see how far it takes me. 

 

 

What do you think about Chennai's opening WTA? Building on this, what do you think about the government’s support for sports programmes in India?

 

I am extremely happy Chennai has a tennis event again. I have always enjoyed my tennis journey in that city, starting from when I won a men’s national tournament and then went on to get selected for the Indian Davis cup team, winning the title of the future there, winning the crucial 5th match against Brazil in Davis Cup, Title at the Men’s ATP Chennai open with Jeevan Nenduncheziyan. Chennai as a city has a rich tennis culture and the people of that city really support tennis and love their tennis. So it is nice to finally see an event back there and most importantly a WTA as that’s something we need more of in the country. 

 

 

A few words about your experience in being a part of Sania Mirza’s last tour in the Australian Open.

 

It would be a perfect dream to conclude the last slam with a title, I believe it will be unique, and we need it in India. We need to keep inspiring everyone back there, and I believe this is the only way to do so. Unfortunately, we fell one step back, still a memorable one.

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