Rohan Bopanna: 'I'm fit again. Will play with Divij Sharan in 2019'
The 38-year-old Rohan Bopanna, a former doubles number 3 and 2017 French Open mixed doubles champion, has had a rough year behind him, falling from the top-35 for the first time since 2010 and failing to reach an ATP final for the first time in 13 years! Bopanna was ranked inside the top-20 when the season started but he and Edouard Roger-Vasselin had lost some close matches and missed a chance to play for the big titles and add more points to their tally. In addition, the Indian veteran (one of the oldest players in the top-100) was forced to skip the entire action between Wimbledon and the US Open due to a neck and arm injuries and he never found the form again after reaching the quarter-final in Newyork, wrapping up the year just inside the top-40.
Before the US Open, Bopanna and Divij Sharan had won the gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia and they will form the team again in 2019, making an agreement to compete together in the following season, starting from them home ATP event in Pune. The 32-year-old from Delhi has had a very solid season, achieving a career-high ranking after the quarter-final run at Wimbledon and playing in the last four on nine more occasions.
“I'm going to be playing with Divij from next year,” Bopanna said. “We're going to be playing together from Pune itself; then a tournament before going to the Australian Open and then we have the Davis Cup as well. It’s always nice to play with someone from your home country. With both being ranked inside the top-40, we are able to enter the biggest tournaments and if that was not the case we wouldn’t have been trying to partner with each other. It’s always nice to play a home Davis Cup tie. Italy will be very, very tough. They have four or five players in the top 100.
They have been a solid team. Fabio Fognini is a strong player; they have a couple of other great players too. It’s been a while since we played at home but hopefully we can get through. At Wimbledon, getting hurt was not easy. I was almost not going to play the Asian Games. When you miss a lot of tournaments — I was defending a few points at the Toronto and Cincinnati Masters — it’s not easy. I completely missed the hard-court season and went straight to the US Open. I’m not worried about my ranking because I know that if I’d had a full season it would have been different. I’m glad to be fully fit again and playing.”
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