He might be a crackerjack Tennis player, but this expertise sure didn’t come to Rohan Bopanna’s aid on Sunday when he had to make his way through a very different track. Announcing the association of Fiat with the Chennai Open 2014, the ace player was asked to navigate a remote control car through a little model race course, as part of the event. There was a tense moment among the organisers when Bopanna could not move the tiny car.
The car, which started off in rather good ‘spirits’, soon found itself bumping into the walls and going off the track. Even as dozens of photographers and reporters crowded around the tiny vehicle, the ‘little villain’ would hardly cooperate, refusing to move, going in all the wrong directions and falling right off the little flyover designed for it, until the champion and the organisers finaly had to give in. “It is not working,” said an event manager after an extended struggle with the remote, putting an end to the labour.
Rohan Bopanna signed T-Shirts and Fiat Merchandise for winners of the digital contest organised by FIAT India at the event. The 19th edition of the $450,000 tournament features one of the strongest playing fields ever, with an impressive line-up of talent including top players Stanislas Wawrinka, Mikhail Youzhny, Fabio Fognini and Benoit Paire among others.