Rohan Bopanna
Rohan Machanda Bopanna is an Indian former tennis player who specialized in doubles. He attained the world No. 1 ranking after winning his first major men's doubles title at the 2024 Australian Open with Matthew Ebden, becoming the oldest first-time No. 1 at the age of 43.
He plays as the marquee player for SG Pipers in the Tennis Premier League.
Bopanna had a partnership with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan for several years, with the pair known as the IndoPak Express. They were runners-up at the 2010 US Open. Bopanna was a finalist at the ATP World Tour Finals in 2012 and 2015 with different partners. He has won two major titles in doubles: at the 2017 French Open mixed doubles alongside Gabriela Dabrowski and the 2024 Australian Open men's doubles alongside Matthew Ebden, becoming the oldest major winner in the Open Era in the latter.
Bopanna also reached major finals at the 2018 and 2023 Australian Opens in mixed doubles; and in the 2023 US Open men's doubles. He has also reached the final of every Masters 1000 tournament at least once. Bopanna has also won 26 doubles titles on the ATP Tour, including six at the Masters 1000 level, with a title at the 2024 Miami Open making him the oldest Masters winner.
Bopanna was a member of the Indian Davis Cup team from 2002 to 2023, and he competed at the 2012, 2016, and 2024 Olympic Games.
Early life
Bopanna has been playing tennis since he was 11. His father is a coffee planter and his mother is a housewife.Tennis career
1996: First Junior Tournament
Bopanna entered his 1st ever ITF Junior tournament which was India ITF Junior World Ranking Event 1996. He won his singles 1st round match against Girish Ramchandani in straight sets. This was his 1st win in the junior level on his 1st appearance. But he lost his next match in straight sets to Yeni Sandeep in straight sets. In the doubles, he partnered Akshay Jagdale where they lost in straight sets to Harsh Mankad and Rishi Sridhar.1997: First Junior Title
Bopanna started the year at Indian ITF Junior Tournament 1 where he had qualified for main draw by getting a bye and beating compatriots Vivek Bhakuni, Nikhil Murali and Arjun Shetty respectively all in straight sets. But he lost in the first round to Vijayendra Laad. In the doubles he partnered Samrat Bhasin but they also lost in 1st round to Austrians Christoph Haid and Hubert Suppan in straight sets. Bopanna won the 1st Arab Championships with Rohan Saikia. This was his 1st ever Junior Level Title. He then won Arab Contractors International Junior Championships with Rohan Saikia.He and Rohan then made it to the semifinals of Kuwait Junior Open where they lost in a high tense match to pair of German Airan Kiebel and Pakistani Syed Nasir AliSherazi 4–6,7–6, 4–6. He ended the year at Duncans ITF Junior World Tennis Championships where he had a second round exit in singles losing to Tembe Kedar and in doubles he partnered with Vijayendra Laad where they lost at semifinals to top seeds and eventual winners Indo-Brit pair of Manoj Mahadevan and James Auckland in straight sets. He achieved his highest ITF Junior Ranking of 601 on 31 December.
1998-99: Last Junior Tournaments and Turning Professional
Bopanna started the year by winning Indian ITF Junior Tournament 1 with Bhatt Ravikiran. In the next tournament which was Indian ITF Junior Tournament 2, they were top seeds but got ousted by Saif Ali and Vijay Kannan in first round. He retired in quarterfinals of singles to Vijay Kannan in first set. At Namangan International Junior Tournament, he lost in first round to Sergei Pozdnev in straight sets, he was top seed in doubles with Denis Surotin where easily won their first round in straight sets but lost in quarterfinals. He again had a first round exit in singles at 18th Tashkent International Junior Tournament where he lost to 8th seeded Denis Kurmatov in straight sets but reached semifinals of doubles with Sergei Pozdnev where they lost to 2nd seeds in straight sets. He then again reached semifinals of EA-Generali-Cup with Bhatt Ravikiran where they again lost to 2nd seeds in straight sets. But his bad form in the singles continued as be failed to qualify for main draw after losing to Andreas Reinsprecht in second round after receiving bye in first round as he was seeded 3rd.He again reached semifinals with Bhatt Ravikiran at ITF Frankfurt Championships where they lost in straight sets. This was his third consecutive semifinal appearance in doubles. He lost to David Sanger in straight sets in final qualifier round of LTA International Junior Championships. But still received entry in main draw as a lucky loser but his luck didn't continued as he lost to Ignacio Gonzalez-King in straight sets of first round. He entered 42nd Van Keeken Tournament where he lost in singles to Julien Cassaigne in straight sets. In the doubles he was seeded 4th with Bhatt Ravikiran where they lost in quarterfinals to Jonas Froberg and Alexander Hartman in straight sets. This was Bopanna's junior Career's last tournament he entered.
Bopanna had a very poor performances in early phase of his senior career. He managed to reach finals of India 2 Masters week 2 with Kedar Shah where they lost in straight sets. Many times his singles campaign ended in qualifying rounds and doubles in quarterfinals.
He ended the 20th century at Jaipur Challenger where he lost to top seed Paradorn Srichaphan in straight sets in first round and in doubles he reached quarterfinals with Rishi Sridhar where they lost to 3rd seeds Slovaks Martin Hromec and Vladimir Platenik in a thrilling match 6-7,7-6,6-7.
2000–01: Professional beginnings
Bopanna had started entering ITF Circuit Tournaments but didn't get much success as many times his campaign ended in qualifying rounds or first and second rounds of main draw. He had only some occasional semifinals and finals appearances in this period. Bopanna began the 21st century at 2000 Gold Flake Open where he lost to Denis Golovanov in straight sets in first round of qualifiers. He entered India F1 Futures where he lost to Mikhail Chadunel in 2nd round of singles after receiving bye in first round. In doubles he partnered Rishi Sridhar but they lost to Mustafa Ghouse and Vishal Uppal in first round. He then reached semifinals of India F3 Futures with Rishi Sridhar where they lost to Andy Ram and Nir Welgreen and in singles lost to Ganesh Sundararaju in straight sets in 2nd round after receiving bye un first. He ended the year at India F6 Futures where reached quarterfinals with Vijay Kannan but lost to Viktor Bruthans in singles 2nd round.He started the year by reaching quarterfinals of India F1 Futures with Vijay Kannan. He reached semifinals of India F2 and F3 Futures with Vijay Kannan where both times they lost in straight sets and both he had a first round exit in singles. He reached the finals of India F4 Futures in both singles and doubles. In singles, he lost to Srinath Prahlad in straight sets. This was his first ITF Circuit final. In doubles, he again lost to Prahlad and Ajay Ramaswami in straight sets partnering Vijay Kannan. He then reached the finals of India F5 Futures where he again lost to Srinath Prahlad in straight sets. He then lost to Eyal Erlich in singles semifinals of India F6 Futures. He ended 2002 season by entering Australia F6 Futures where he had first round exit in singles by Todd Reid in straight sets and reached wuarterfinals in doubles with Ronald Rugimbana.
2002: Success at ITF Circuit, Davis Cup and Asian Games Debut
Bopanna had a good success at ITF futures level in 2002. He won the UAE F2 Futures with his Taiwanese partner Lu Yen-hsun. This was his 1st Futures title. He then won the Sri Lanka F1 Futures with compatriot Vijay Kannan. He then won India F2 Futures by defeating Dmitri Mazur 7-5,5-7,6-4. He also won the doubles with Vijay Kannan. He then won the India F5 Futures both singles and doubles with Vijay Kannan. He made his Davis Cup debut in the World Group qualifying match against Australia. He lost his singles match against Scott Draper 3-6,5-7. Eventually India lost the tie 0-5 clean sweeped. He was selected for 2002 Asian Games. In the singles, he was seeded 11th but he lost to 3rd seed and eventual bronze medallist Takao Suzuki of Japan 5-7,2-6 in the pre-quarters. In the team event, he won his singles and doubles match with Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya as India easily beat Timor-Leste to enter quarterfinals. But in the quarterfinals he lost his important singles match as India lost to Uzbekistan 3-0. He entered Tata Open as a wildcard with his Spanish partner Carlos Cuadrado but they lost in the 1st round in straight sets to Jaroslav Levinský and David Škoch. This was his first ever appearance at main draw of any ATP Tour tournament.2003: 1st Challenger Series Title
Bopanna started the season at Tata Open where he entered the main draw as a wildcard but he lost in 1st round to Željko Krajan in straight sets. Bopanna was selected for Davis Cup tie against Japan. Bopanna defeated Jun Kato in one hour 54 minutes for his first win in Davis Cup. India defeated Japan 4-1 in the Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie. In the next tie against New Zealand, Bopanna went down to Alistair Hunt in a gruelling five setter. But he won his next singles match against James Shortall in straight sets as India won the tie 4-1 to qualify for world group play-offs.He won the Denver Challenger with his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi where they were the top seeds. This was his first ATP Challenger Series title. Before Denver they have reached the semifinals of Manchester Trophy. He then won Indonesia F1 Futures title where he defeated Febi Wediyanto in the final.
In the Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie against Netherlands, Bopanna lost his singles match against Martin Verkerk. In the important doubles match, he and Mahesh Bhupathi lost to John van Lottum and Martin Verkerk. India were clean sweep 5-0 by Holland in the tie.
Bopanna won 2 gold medals at Afro-Asian Games. In the doubles, he partnered Mahesh Bhupathi where they defeated Adelo Abadia and Johnny Arcilla of Philippines in semifinals in straight sets. Then, compatriots Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya and Vinod Sridhar in the gold medal match. In the team event, Bopanna put India on 1-0 lead in the gold medal tie with a run-away win over Rotimi Jegede before Prakash Amritraj overcame Sunday Maku, the top ranked Nigerian, to carve out a victory. In the doubles match, Vijay Kannan and Vishal Uppal blew away Balalola Abdul and Maku as India defeated Nigeria 3-0 in the gold medal match.