Rohan Bopanna would love to see Indian tennis grow stronger
The 38-year-old Rohan Bopanna has had a busy schedule in the first 40 days of 2019, winning the title at home in Pune with Divij Sharan before losing in the opening round of Sydney and Melbourne. Rohan and Divij scored the only win for India over Italy in Davis Cup Qualifiers before traveling to Europe where they reached the semi-final in Sofia, deciding to go home instead of making a long trip to New York just two weeks before the ATP 500 event in Dubai that Bopanna won three times in four years between 2012-15.
Rohan had the opportunity to speak with the local media about Indian tennis and new changes on the global level that have changed the sport for good in the last six months or so. Under the ITF reforms, the qualifying draws have been reduced together with those at Challengers and it became tough for the lower-ranked players to earn enough ITF or ATP points and secure the place in $25,000 events. A former world no. 3 was not a "tennis kid," starting to play at a late age but he fully understands the importance of developing a solid foundation for the kids in India to embrace tennis and work under a well-organized system.
Besides the Sports School in Bengaluru, Bopanna would love to see more junior and pro events in India and the best possible facilities for the youngsters to work on their game and be ready for the international challenges. At the moment, India has 15 players on the ATP singles ranking list and only five younger than 24.
“I had never heard of a four-player qualifying event. But, that is the new format. It is bad. The system is discouraging people from playing tennis. At this stage, we need to strengthen the system in India. We need to have good events for juniors and other players. We can have the Masters like the ATP year-end championship. We are trying to work out a strong tournament-structure in consultation with the national federation. We have tied up for tennis at The Sports School in Bengaluru. It is a big project for many games, with schooling, hostel etc. We have seven tennis courts with floodlights. We plan to conduct tournaments apart from training players to make the best use of the facility.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2S3AR6w
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