Last Sunday at Melbourne Park wasn’t the same for Rohan Bopanna and Roger Federer. The Swiss’ fairytale followed the Indian’s heartbreak. While Federer joined Novak Djokovic and Roy Emerson in capturing a sixth Australian Open crown, Bopanna, with Timea Babos, squandered a championship point and missed his second Grand Slam crown.
Saturday, though, was fun for both. The two trained on the finals’ eve for an hour. For Bopanna, 37, the 60-minute session was also an opportunity to watch Greatness, 36, from close quarters.
“So, one day before the finals, Ivan Ljubicic sent me a text asking if I wanted to practice with him for an hour,” the 37-year-old Indian told a group of journalists at the launch of Rohan Bopanna’s Master Blend – his coffee brand – in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
“I said, ‘Surely,’ because you don’t get many opportunities to play with him. I happened to be there at that time and [there is] nothing like playing with him. He’s a lot of fun. He enjoys his tennis. So much for players to learn from him. We had a good practice session for an hour. We had a good laugh.”
But what happened at the training? Why would a top singles player choose a doubles specialist for practice? Anything to do with tactics?
No, said Bopanna. “It’s not that you are doing many drills as such. It’s more like how your body is feeling, how you are hitting. I am not playing doubles points or he is not playing singles points. At the end of the day you are just giving him a good hit and vice versa.”
The session, he says, was fun but required focus; it was enjoyable yet intense.
Fun, focus. Enjoyment, intensity. Neatly sums up Federer, doesn’t it?
“The difference is that when you are playing someone at the top level, the balls are coming constantly, that after a few minutes I need a water break.”
Age is just a number
Of course, Bopanna’s not young anymore. He’s 37, a year older than Federer. But from Federer he’s learnt that age is just a number. “If you keep fit, if you keep playing well, if you keep believing...”
Bopanna is fit (fitter, after cutting down on bread), he’s playing well (won the Roland Garros – his first Grand Slam title – last year), and he believes (“I don’t think there is one particular age that will make me stop,” he says).
So, what are his plans for 2018? Playing doubles, it isn’t enough if he draws and tracks his schedule. In doubles, sometimes, a player proposes, and his/her partner disposes.
He isn’t sure about partnering Babos again. “We had fixed only Australia. We have not spoken after that.”
What about Gabriela Dabrowski? Will Bopanna and her defend their French crown? “We never fixed this year at all. In mixed doubles, it literally [varies from] Grand Slam to Grand Slam.”
But with Edouard Roger-Vasselin, with whom he reached the men’s doubles semi-final in Melbourne, he plans long-term.
“In the last month, we played some good matches. We won some close matches in Sydney, losing to the champions there. And in Melbourne as well, the guys we lost to ended up winning the tournament.”
He added, “We have started playing good as a team. It’s just a matter of time. We also work on assessing what our strengths and weaknesses are. And it is work in progress. We have played only two tournaments so far. We obviously have such a long season.”
How does he go about picking partners? How does he approach them?
Aggression and big-hitting prowess are the attributes he looks for in a partner. “Those kind of partners always help my style,” he said. “Those are the kind of partners I try to play with.”
And, approaching his potential partners, he says, is simple: “ It’s purely word of mouth. There is no rocket science to it.”
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