2010 doubles finalist Rohan Bopanna earmarks this year’s US Open for his moment of glory.

Rohan Bopanna is taking the tourist’s route through New York City – visiting Rockefeller Center, trying a different kind of cuisine each night and planning Broadway escapades with wife Supriya. But when it comes to the top rung of ATP doubles play, the 33-year-old Indian feels absolutely at home. This fortnight, Bopanna, currently the highest-ranked Indian on the doubles roster at No. 7, is aiming to go one-up on his finals appearance at the 2010 US Open.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes may still carry a big share of Indian hopes at Grand Slams, but Bopanna’s consistent performances over the last few months on the circuit have proven that he’s found his own niche.

Bopanna, who reached a careerhigh doubles ranking of 3rd on July 22, is partnering Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin at Flushing Meadows and is seeded sixth. The two made the semi-finals at Wimbledon, exiting in five sets to the world No 1 team of Mike and Bob Bryan. Set to open his New York challenge on Wednesday against home hopes Bradley Klahn and Sam Querrey, Bopanna speaks with Mirror about his recent form and expectations from this year and the next.

You’ve seen some top results over the last few months. Have you made any specific changes to your play?

I’ve been working hard on improving the finer aspects of my game, especially volleying, which is a major part of playing doubles. Before starting practice along with my playing partner, I tend to spend an extra half an hour just working on my volleys. I’ve always had a game where I serve big and return big, but I feel that this [volleying] is key to taking me to another level. All top doubles players – the Bryans, [Daniel] Nestor, Paes, Mahesh, even the Woodies [Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde], have great volleying capabilities.

Have you also made changes to your fitness program?

Oh, yes. I’ve been working a lot on cardio and agility work in order to last longer and move a little quicker. That’s what, I think, has changed for me in these past few months.

You’ve spoken of reaching the world No. 1 ranking in doubles. How realistic is that target, considering you have a lot of points to defend next year?

If you want to become the world No 1, you basically just have to win Grand Slams. So that’s my goal first and foremost. As players, we don’t think about defending points – we just go out there and play. The Grand Slams, however, are a priority. And if you win Grand Slams, that goal [of getting to world No. 1] is very achievable.

How close do you think you are to a Grand Slam? Do you believe it could be two weeks away?

It could be, definitely. I’ve made the final here before; I love playing on this surface. It could be right here in this tournament.

You have changed several doubles partners in the last few months. What is the reason for that and how does this impact your game?

In the beginning of the year I started playing with [American player] Rajeev Ram, but during the clay-court season we were not even getting into the tournaments. Then I started playing with Mahesh, but even though we were doing well in the ATP format, we didn’t perform as well in the Grand Slams. We mutually decided to work with different partners. I then started playing with Edouard and it has worked out – we’ll be playing here and until the end of the year, and hopefully we’ll qualify for the Masters.

How much does it hurt to keep switching partners?

It is definitely ideal to have just one partner long term because of practice schedules, playing tournaments, and just getting used to the courts and each other. But sometimes situations arise where you have to change partners. [For instance] when I was in Montreal, Edouard wasn’t playing there, so the options for me were to either miss the event or find somebody else. [Bopanna played with German Andre Begemann and lost in the opener.]

How much does the permanence of their partnership help Bob and Mike Bryan?

They 100 percent have an advantage there. They’ve been playing all their lives together and their success has shown that – especially in close matches where they either win in five sets or 7-6 in the third set.

Practicing together regularly will get you through the most crucial times in a game.

source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com / Mumbai Mirror / Home> Sports> Tennis / by Aabha Rathee / August 29th, 2013

He has come in for criticism often for his performance on the field, but that didn’t dampen city lad Robin Uthappa’s spirit, who just went ahead and once again proved his mettle at this year’s IPL season.

Sporting a new leaner and fitter look, the cricketer is back in action, determined to get into the Indian national team again. In a candid chat with BT, Robin tells us about his new look, his love for cooking, changed temperament and more.

Why did you go MIA for a while?

I went off the grid for a while because I wanted to work on a few aspects – fitness, technique and temperament. I wanted to figure out the areas I could improve on in terms of my game. I was always physically strong, but was slow on the field, so I worked on losing weight. I made some lifestyle changes and lost 20 kilos.

What kind of lifestyle changes did you make?

I took a nutritionist’s advice and changed my diet, modified my water intake, and took multivitamins. I followed a strict discipline on what I ate, how long I rested and so on. I am a foodie. I enjoy my food and even have a sweet tooth. But now I have everything in moderation.

You were reportedly paying 15,000 a session for your training in Mumbai…

Cricket is my bread and butter. Very few people get the chance to pursue their passion as their livelihood. For me, it was an investment which made every session and hour count. It also motivated me to train harder. With this training, I have just gotten better. I am still young and have got a lot of cricket to offer.

Did you become spiritual during your time away?

I’ve been religious in the past. But now I think I have become less of that and grown as a person. It is important to choose how you want to live your life and be honest with yourself. It was a little difficult to keep in touch with people at that time since I was off all social networking sites. I enjoyed the solitude as I got to concentrate on bettering my game. I also travelled a lot during that time by myself.

You ran a business in Bangalore with Sreesanth. What was your reaction to the controversy he was involved with? Are you still in touch with him?

The news of the controversy was, no doubt, shocking. But I haven’t been in touch with Sreesanth in a long time. In fact, I’ve not spoken to him since 2010, when we shut down the inn that we ran in Bangalore.

Is entrepreneurship still a focus area?

No I don’t want to do anything as such right now. My focus is on cricket and I am concentrating on getting better by the day.

Are you seeing anyone now? What about marriages plans?

I am single and don’t have any marriage plans yet. In fact, I seldom get to see my family because I travel so much, so there is no question of getting married any time soon.

You said you are a foodie, do you cook as well?

I know how to cook and I enjoy baking. I bake some great brownies. Cooking is like a great stress buster.

Do you have any friends in the Indian cricket team?

Irfan Pathan is a good friend and so is Harbhajan Singh; he is a funny guy. I am also friends with Yusuf Pathan, Mahi (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) Virat Kohli, Vinay Kumar and Suresh Raina.

You played with Yuvraj Singh on the same team this IPL season. How was it to have him back in action?

To see him come back on the field was great. It takes a lot of character and courage to beat a sickness like cancer like that. I have a lot of respect for him and it was good to play for the same team.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> Interviews> Cricket / by Taniya Talukdar, TNN / July 14th, 2013

There’s frenetic activity inside the Shiv Chhatraparti Sports Complex with the Pune Pistons’ players hard at practice.

However, at one of the corner courts the scene is different. Here, the focus in on finesse during net play. Joachim Fischer Nielsen, the world No 4 in mixed doubles, is passing on valuable tips to Ashwini Ponnappa.
Nielsen chides her for making silly errors, but that doesn’t upset Ponnappa. She knows she is adding something to her repertoire, and makes the most of the time spent with Nielsen, a mixed doubles bronze medallist at the London Olympics.

“Playing with a player of his calibre is an honour. Not often do you get such an opportunity,” she said after an exhausting session.

Ponnappa has always been a back-court player, possessing one of the strongest smashes in the women’s game.

What she lacked was touch play at the net. “I was reluctant to get to the net.” But that’s not the case anymore.”

With a new weapon in her armoury, she’s ready to join forces with Jwala Gutta after the IBL.

It will be more than a year since the country’s most successful women’s doubles pair broke up, with the latter going on a seven-month sabbatical.

“In a way, the split with Jwala was good. It kind of helped both of us,” said Ponnappa.

Pairing up with Jwala will end her brief but successful outing with Pradnya Gadre. The pair had stunned world No 2 Ma Jin and Tang Jinhua in the second round of the Malaysia Open, which was their third tournament together.

“I’ve improved, especially in my net game and analysis,” she said of the time spent with Gadre.

While she didn’t dwell much on what prompted her to get back with Jwala, Ponnappa is certain that she will focus on women’s and mixed doubles, which she has been playing with Tarun Kona.

Zebadiah to replace Taerattanachai
New Delhi : The Awadhe Warriors announced that SCG Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold winner Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth of Indonesia will replace Thai shuttler Sapsiree Taerattanachai for the remaining matches of the Indian Badminton League.

Pia Zebadiah will join the team on Friday, and will stay till the end of the league.

Thailand players would be returning home for their national championships. Pia Zebadiah was in the reserve list and Awadhe Warriors decided to pick her for the remaining matches of the $1 million tournament.

Hu Yun equates IBL with Worlds
Bangalore: Beats shuttler Hu Yun feels the level of competition in the IBL is similar to the prestigious World Championships.

“I think there is very good competition here. It is a lot like the World Championship because a same set of players feature in these tournaments,” said the China-born shuttler, who represents Hong Kong.

Yun, who lost in the third round of the World Championships, said he was impressed and would participate in the second edition of the IBL.

The Hong Kong player said he has made many friends and they discussed badminton regularly.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Sport / by Rajesh Pansare, Hindustan Times / Pune – August 23rd, 2013

India’s Rohan Bopanna reached a career-high rank of No.5 with 5,380 points in the ATP World Tour rankings. The Wimbledon semifinalist is also the highest rank Indian at present.

Bopanna’s leap in the rankings is based out his performance in men’s doubles at the Wimbledon with French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin where they bowed out after an intense fight against top seeds Bryan brothers.

“It is great to have been ranked fifth on the rankings ladder. It is an extremely proud moment for my team and myself, as this ranking is a true testament of the many years of hard work, focus and determination. Being for the first time, the highest ranked Indian makes this all that more special and is an added motivation to perform better with every passing game,” Bopanna said.

Asked about his future, Bopanna said, “It is too early to speculate, though Eduardo and I are in conversation on continuing this partnership given the great run we have had in the two weeks at Wimbledon.”

While taking a break from the tour currently, Rohan is scheduled to hit the Hard Court season with the Citi Open in Washington before proceeding to the Masters Coupe Rogers in Montreal, Canada.

source: http://www.khelnama.com / Home> Tennis / by Khelnama News Desk> Tennis / July 08th, 2013

After playing sidekick to Jwala, Ponnappa ready to play lead with new partner Pradnya.

Ashwini Ponnappa, not dressed in her usual badminton attire, had to curb her inclination to smash the shuttle as hard as possible. She is known for possessing one of the strongest smashes in the game but at that moment India’s doubles specialist was playing knocks at Jamnabai Narsee School with a couple of novices who posed no challenge.

This may have been an exhibition match for Ponnappa, who during her partnership with Jwala Gutta was always the inexperienced half of a killer pair, but now that she is started playing with a Pradnya Gadre the ‘new senior partner’ of the pair will have to be more cautious in her approach, especially with the World Championships around the corner.

“It was a different experience playing with Jwala. She was a very calm player and very confident. I was young and very temperamental, so naturally it rubbed off on me. However, those days are gone. I don’t have much leeway to act that way. Pradnya is fairly raw, though she can hold her own I do now have to take the initiative and guide her. She has to know that it is all about having fun in your match,” Ashwini told Mirrorfrom the sidelines of an Indian Badminton League event.

The duo of Ashwini and Jwala were unpredictable and not consistent but they had a knack of winning at the big stage. Whether it be gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games or a bronze at the World Championship in 2011 they grabbed it all but the partnership eventually had to end after the an unsuccessful Olympics.

She now goes to the World Championships in Guangzhou, China, with a new partner and a new outlook on how she plays. In the old days she usually stuck to the back of the court looking to smash anything that came her way, knowing that Jwala would be handling business upfront. She now has to control the pace of the game. This means playing closer to the net and rather than smashes she would have to increase of repertoire.

“I was always a little nervous around the net and with my dribbling but now I have to be ready to take up the challenge and I feel confident. I am playing mixed doubles as well and with that I have to keep up my fitness and that has made me a better player. I can now go into matches with much more confidence.”

source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com / Mumbai Mirror / Home> Sport> Others / by Sandeep Narayan / July 16th, 2013

New Delhi:

Top Indian shuttlers Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa Wednesday said the doubles event is not being taken seriously by the administrators of the sport and the focus is on singles.

India’s singles shuttlers are doing brilliantly on the international circuit with eight of them figuring among the men’s top-50 while Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu are forces to reckon with in women’s singles.

However, the standard of doubles has really gone down with no Indian in the top-25 of either men’s, women’s or mixed category.

“Ashwini and I were performing well against the top players in the world. But since then, there has been no consistency. Doubles is not taken seriously and the attitude needs to change from the administration and the system. They need to understand that doubles is also an integral part of the sport and not just singles and it needs to be taken seriously by everyone,” said Jwala, who is icon player of the Krrish Delhi Smashers in the Indian Badminton League (IBL).

“Despite winning the Commonwealth Games gold (2010) and the World Championship bronze (2011), when no one expected anything from us, we hardly got any sponsorship and had to struggle for it. It becomes quite difficult then,” added Jwala.

Women’s doubles was also given the snub at the IBL where another men’s singles event replaced the former, drawing criticism from several doubles shuttlers.

The 23-year-old Ashwini also reiterated Jwala’s sentiments.

“I think people need to understand that doubles is also an important category. You have three doubles events when there are only two for singles. There needs to be more focus on doubles players as they also need motivation which I do not think is coming from all sectors of the sport,” said Ashwini, who is icon player of the Pune Pistons.

Both Jwala and Ashwini have said that they will be resuming their successful partnership later this year.

IANS
source: http://www.zeenews.india.com / Zee News / Home> Sports> Indian Badminton League 2013 / Wednesday – August 13th, 2013

Pune:

The picturesque Balewadi Sports Complex looked resplendent against the Baner Hillock, washed clean by the steady drizzle since afternoon. Yet, some 50 odd fans braved the pitter-patter to gather at the warm up ground as Indian quartermiler MR Poovamma went through her drills on the eve of Asian Track and Field Championships, on Tuesday evening.

As the chief coach Bahadur Singh watched keenly from a distance, another coach, N. Ramesh was busy explaining to a group of people how much it depends on the young 400 metres runner to lift the sagging morale of Indian athletics after the doping scandal involving six top female runners threatened to break the backbone of the sport.

“With all top female 400 metres runners including Ashwini and Mandeep being banned for doping, some felt India’s supremacy in Asia in this event would be over,” said Ramesh.

“We were once again able to build a team from the scratch that would be hard to beat in Asia. If Poovamma is our best bet, then equally talented are girls like Nirmala and Anu Mariam Jose.”

Having established herself as the top quartermiler of the country, Poovamma is placed second in the Asian lists for the season with her 52.75 recorded at Fed Cup at Patiala. For the record, No. 1 Japanese Haruka Sugiura, 52.52, is not competing here.

Poovamma should be a strong contender for gold; she had swept the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix series this season. Yulia Rakhmanova of Kazakhstan is expected to be her closest challenger. Gone are the days when India returned home with 10 gold medals from the Asian meet like they did in 1985 in Jakarta.

India are no longer considered an athletics superpower in the continent and in the last meet in Kobe, they managed to win only one gold through triple jumper Mayookha Johny.

Yet, in the 20th edition of the Championship beginning here Wednesday, India, being represented by a record number of 107 athletes, are expected to win a handful of medals. While the hosts have the luxury of naming three participants in each of the 42 events, the fact that as many as 21 events won’t see Asia’s current toppers would also definitely help the athletes from the home country. For being the hosts, India can expect to finish second or third in the medals tally, which has been dominated by the Chinese athletes for nearly 30 years now.

In the next one week, several Indians are expected to finish on the podium — Vikas Gowda (men’s discus), Sudha Singh (women’s 3000m steeplechase), MR Poovamma (women’s 400m), Kumaravel Prem Kumar (men’s long jump), Tintu Luka (women’s 800m), Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump) and Krishna Poonia (women’s discus). While all these are gold medal prospects, the likes of Mayookha Johny (women’s long jump and triple jump) and Arpinder Singh (men’s triple jump) are among other medal prospects.

The winners of gold medals in this meet would have the advantage of getting direct qualification for the World Championship in Moscow. Gowda is the top performer of the season among the participants with Iran’s 2012 London Olympic silver medallist Ehsan Hadadi deciding to skip the event in view of the Moscow World Championships in August.

Gowda’s 65.82m effort in April is the season’s second best among Asians after Hadadi’s 66.98m.

In women’s 3000m steeplechase, Sudha Singh is the clear favourite after her 9:45.60 effort in the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai early last month, which is a national record.

In the absence of last edition winner Minori Hayakari of Japan, Sudha’s contest for gold medal is likely to be with Ruth Chebet of Bahrain.

Sudha, the reigning Asian Games gold medallist, had finished second behind Hayakari in the last Asian Championships in 2011 in Kobe.

Krishna Poonia, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist and India’s most famous female athlete would be taking the field without much practice.

“I suffered an injury and could hardly practice after the Chennai nationals. I have to rely more on experience,” she said.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcullta-India / Front Page> Sport> Story / by Jaydeep Basu / Wednesday – July 03rd,2013