Rohan Bopanna hopeful of making Davis Cup trip to Pakistan

Rohan Bopanna has had an interesting first six-and-a-half months of the season. Partnering Divij Sharan, he won Pune Open.
Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna (File photo)
Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna (File photo)

CHENNAI: Rohan Bopanna has had an interesting first six-and-a-half months of the season. Partnering Divij Sharan, he won Pune Open. After that, the pair hoped that it would be the start of a fruitful partnership. However, a few close losses later, they were forced to change partners as their combined rankings wasn’t enough to get into Masters and 500 events. Since leaving the 33-year-old, Bopanna has played with four partners, with varying levels of success. 

After receiving his Arjuna award from sports minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday, the doubles specialist spoke on the mentioned issues as well as looking forward to the upcoming Davis Cup tie in Islamabad. 

The season so far. 
It started really well when we (Divij and him) won in Pune. But unfortunately, we were forced to change partners. After that, I played with Denis (Shapavalov). After pairing with Dominic Inglot, I played a few. Even with Inglot, who is World No 20, we still couldn’t get into a few events. The cuts are getting pretty high these days. There was the option of playing 250 events but we wanted to play in bigger events. 
 
Things that he could have done better. 
Clay court season could have been better. Unfortunately, Dom and I didn’t do well. So we decided to call off our partnership as we had hardly won. Since then, I played with (Marius) Copil, Shapavolov again before teaming with (Pablo) Cuevas. With Cuevas, we played a good match (at Wimbledon), but couldn’t get through. 

Where Divij and he faltered.
I don’t think Divij and I consider it as “falter”. Even at Australian Open, we lost to a team that had reached US Open semifinals. They are a strong team, and had played more matches. Even in Dubai, we lost a close match. In the future, if there is an opportunity to play with each other, we will definitely go for it. First up, both of us first need to try and improve our individual rankings. 

The upcoming US swing.
I will be playing with Denis in the US swing. He has committed to playing doubles with me. Washington, Montreal, Cincinnati and US Open. But then, it all depends because my ranking (No 48) isn’t that high... I need to improve that soon. That is what I have planned for the next few weeks and the remainder of the season.

On travelling to Pakistan for Davis Cup and possibly playing against Aisam ul-haq Qureshi.
If I am in the squad, I will travel. I have been to Pakistan a few times and always received great hospitality. As far as playing against Aisam is concerned, I have already played against him a lot. But it’s nice to have somebody who is very familiar there.

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