Rohan Bopanna reached his first ATP doubles final at the Chennai Open in 2006 while partnering Prakash Amritraj but the duo lost to the Slovak/Czech pair of Michal Mertinak and Petr Pala. Soon after, Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi — jointly known the world over as the Indo-Pak Express — joined forces. And this year, for the first time ever, Bopanna and Qureshi will play together at the Chennai Open.
“We have played as a team in Mumbai but this will be the first time we will be together in Chennai. It will be great to play there. I love the tournament, the best part of which is the crowd. Spectators cheer you and play a big part in the players putting up fine performances. The motivation is tremendous and I am definitely looking forward to the event,” says Bopanna, who lost in the Chennai Open quarterfinals last year while partnering Mahesh Bhupathi.
With a successful season behind him, Bopanna is understandably on a high. “2010 was a great year for me and for us (Bopanna-Qureshi) together. It was a breakthrough year for us — we reached five finals including our first Grand Slam final at the US Open. We won two ATP Tour doubles titles and were runners-up in three events. Then, I managed to win both my singles matches against Brazil in the Davis Cup tie in Chennai and this helped India enter the World Group,” he says. And all this was achieved without Bopanna playing too many big tournaments early in the year. “Hopefully, that will not be the case in 2011. After the Chennai Open, we will move to Sydney and then the Australian Open. Then, before we get to Wimbledon, there are other tournaments and India’s Davis Cup tie against Serbia. This will help us remain fit and also give us opportunities to improve our ranking,” says Bopanna.
“Year 2011 will be more hectic than 2010 in terms of participation in tournaments, but that will benefit my game,” says the athletic Coorgi from Karnataka who, in June 2010, was named a ‘Champion for Peace’ by Peace and Sport, an international organisation under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco.
Though Bopanna has a wild-card in the Chennai Open singles, he also points out that there are numerous good players like Marin Cilic, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, Richard Gasquet and Robin Haase in the field. “But having done well in the Davis Cup in singles has given me a lot of confidence and I will surely put up a good fight,” he asserts. “I played in the Petroleum Sports Control Board’s departmental tournament in Pune and this has helped me prepare for the Chennai Open,” informs Bopanna, who helped Indian Oil Corporation win the team title.
As for as his prospects with Qureshi in doubles, Bopanna expects the competition to be tough. “There are many good players around and no match is going to be easy. But we are ready and, as I said, home support will surely do wonders for us,” he says.
-- sports@expressbuzz.com