Aging like fine wine, Rohan Bopanna is all fired up for his last hurrah at the Olympic Games.
Not the one who would rail against circumstances or crib about not having the strongest of partners, the veteran Indian tennis player says his comrade N Sriram Balaji has enough firepower and the scratch pairing is potent enough to test the big teams in Paris.
Had Bopanna been ranked outside the top-10, India would not have any representation in the men’s doubles event at the Paris Olympics, starting July 26.
The 44-year-old had to make a choice between Balaji and Yuki Bhambri and after consulting his coaches — Scott Davidoff and Balachandran Mannikkath — he eventually settled for the more “athletic and agile” Balaji.
“I really believe that when we go out there, we genuinely have a chance to win every match, whoever we play against. It’s not like we’re just going to be written off, I feel,” Bopanna told PTI in an exclusive interview.
Bopanna has reason to have that confidence in Balaji’s ability to rise to the occasion. He had a chance to test Balaji at the French Open where Bopanna was pushed along with Matthew Ebden by the Tamil Nadu player and his Mexican partner Miguel Reyes-Varela.
Not only this, Balaji had a consistent run on the ATP Tour where he scalped a few big names such as Americans Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek — both top-10 players — at the Houston ATP 250 event on clay.
With his German partner Andre Begemann, Balaji also defeated Austria’s top-50 players Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler.
Balaji also showed that he can quickly adapt to conditions when he was asked to do the singles duty during the Davis Cup tie against Pakistan on grass. The rival was not of the highest quality but Balaji showed that he was willing to come out of his comfort zone if the team demands.
“The idea is to go prepared, at least believe in as a team. That is what we’re trying to do. With Bala, he definitely has the firepower to do well,” Bopanna said.
He also gave his reason for picking Balaji over Bhambri.
“I felt Balaji, depending on the surface we’re playing with, which is the clay, would have been the ideal partner. Currently, even if you look at (Matthew) Ebden, who I’m playing with, he’s somebody who’s more agile, more explosive on that surface.
“And for clay, especially, I need a partner who would suit me better in terms of going by the surface. If it was a hard court or a grass court, maybe Yuki would have been the preferred choice.” Bopanna though…