We need to focus on our individual rankings: Rohan Bopanna

MUMBAI: While Grand Slams will always remain the epitome of success for a tennis player, the lure of an Olympic medal will never cease to exist. With the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on the horizon, Indian doubles player Rohan Bopanna has his eyes firmly set on qualifying for the quadrennial event.
As the highest-ranked doubles player in India, Bopanna, ranked 38, should have no issue when it comes to being India’s choice for the Olympics.He’ll most likely partner with Divij Sharan, who is ranked 46 in doubles. To do well at the Olympics, Bopanna and Sharan will need to play tournaments together, but because of their rankings, they’re not getting an entry into Masters or even ATP 500 tournaments.
“With our rankings, we can get into only the 250 events. Even the 500 or the Masters we don’t get in because the cut offs are really, really tough,” Bopanna told TOI at the Asics jersey launch for the Tata Mumbai Marathon on Thursday.
Bopanna, whose doubles partner on the ATP Tour is World No. 15 Dennis Shapovalov of Canada, said he and Sharan need to improve their ranking.
“I think we (Sharan and him) need to still focus on our individual ranking in order to qualify for Olympics, which is right after the French Open. We have a few months for that. We have a couple of Grand Slams and the Masters series as well. There’s Indianwells, Miami which are really big events. To play in them, as I said, we have to really focus on our own individual ranking to make sure that we can qualify as a team,” he said.
Sania Mirza has just returned to tennis after having a baby and Bopanna says he can’t wait to team up with her in mixed doubles.
“There’s no other player on the women’s side who can qualify at the moment. So, yeah, if there’s an opportunity to play with Sania again, I would love to. We’ve been friends for so many years, so I’m really happy to see her back on the court, playing tennis,” he said.
The love-hate story between the Indian players and the All India Tennis Association (Aita) was played out in the open recently, thanks to India’s Davis Cup tie with Pakistan.
Though Bopanna pulled out due to injury, he had released a statement saying the Aita should’ve informed the players of their decision to change the captain from Mahesh Bhupathi to Rohit Rajpal.
“There’s just a big lack of communication within the federation and the players and if that improves, I think there will be so many more changes. Federations and players need to get together and really find the best scenario at the end of the day. Yes, we have had so many issues over the years and going forward, it should only get better,” he said.