The curious case of the Indian Bopanna at the Australian Open: at 43 years old he is n.1 in doubles after beating the Argentine González-Molteni

Almost a decade has passed since then Rohan Bopanna He reached the podium in the ATP doubles rankings for the first time. He joined him in July 2013, the year Bob and Mike Bryan won 11 titles, including three of the four Grand Slams and five of the nine Masters 1000s. They were unreachable.

He was then 33 years old and it seemed that the number one train was passing for this talented Indian tennis player, who that season had reached the semi-final of Wimbledon paired with the Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasellin, falling just before the American Twin Brothers in a five-set battle .

However, the Kodagu native remained behind that big goal, taking advantage of the opportunity presented to him in this Australian Open 2024 and thus puts the finishing touch on a career spanning over 20 years. Paired with Swede Matthew Ebden, he beat the Argentines 6-4 and 7-6 Massimo González AND André Molteni AND Next Monday he will appear at the top of the world rankings at 43 years, 10 months and 25 days, an unprecedented record.

After the early elimination of the top two seeds, the American Austin Krajicek and the Croatian Ivan Dodig, Bopanna went this Tuesday (Wednesday in Australia) to the Margaret Court Arena looking for much more than a victory. He became the oldest player to reach No. 1, in both singles and doubles.. And he succeeds.

Like all tennis players starting their professional career, Bopanna dreamed of becoming a great singles player and emulating some of the feats achieved by Stefan Edberg which he recognizes as his great reference within the world of racket. But his adventure in that mode didn’t last long.

He played only 48 matches on the big circuit, with a balance of 15 wins and 33 defeats, as well as a large number of Challengers and qualis he played in several ATP tournaments before finally switching to doubles. Likewise, she had the luxury of being one of the many “victims” of Roger Federer in the Halle tournament, where the Swiss was champion ten times. Even though he was the same age he managed to admire “His Majesty of him”.

As detailed on the official ATP website, “He started playing at the age of 11 because his father wanted him to play an individual sport.” Muddur Gopal Bopanna, a real estate businessman in India, is a tennis enthusiast and planted the seed for the successful career his son would have by starting to coach him when he was 11 years old.

After being national under 14 champion in 1997 in doubles and finalist in singles, he received a scholarship to enter the Indian Tennis Academy in 1999, a government institution created with the aim of promoting this sport in the Asian country. There he was trained by Mahesh Bhupathi, champion of Roland Garros and Wimbledon that season, who became his mentor and close friend.

That is, precisely, another of his great unfinished business: lifting a Grand Slam title. She succeeded in mixed doubles, at Roland Garros 2017 with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski, but twice she failed to achieve great consecration among men and both were at the US Open. First, in 2010, together with Pakistani Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, they lost in two tie-breaks to the Bryan brothers; and then, in 2023 with Ebden at their side, they lost in three sets to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

He has also reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon twice, in 2013 and 2015 respectively, four quarter-finals at Roland Garros (2011, 2016, 2018 and 2021) and is having his best performance this year at the Australian Open, reaching the semi-finals where they will face the Czech pair Tomas Machac and the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang.

Furthermore, he was a finalist at the Masters Tournament in 2012 and 2015 and has five Masters 1000s under his belt. The most recent, the one he won at Indian Wells last year at the age of 43 years and 14 days, made him the most old to have lifted a trophy in this category, surpassing Canadian Daniel Néstor, who held that record after winning Cincinnati in 2015 at 42 years and 353 days.

In an admirable display of love for art, hierarchy, perseverance and so much dedication and professionalism, Bopanna goes on and on. On March 4th he will turn 44, he has accomplished a feat of historic proportions and he is not stopping his march.