Senior Pro Bops Hopes to Deliver

Circa 2002. India, still part of the World Group, were playing Australia in the first round of Davis Cup at Adelaide. Having lost the first three ties, captain Ramesh Krishnan decided to send a 22-year-old for the reverse singles match. A certain Bangalorean by the name of Rohan Bopanna, who was the youngest in the team, could not make his Davis Cup debut a memorable one as he lost to Scott Draper in straight sets and the Indians lost 0-5.
Rohan-BopannaKF27jan2014

It’s been over a decade since Bopanna first played for the country, and this time, he is back in the squad as the senior-most player when India take on the Chinese Taipei in the Asia/Oceania Group I encounter starting in Indore on January 31.
Making a comeback after a two-year hiatus, the 33-year-old couldn’t have asked for a better start to the new year. “It’s obviously a great feeling to be selected again. I’m honoured to represent my country and this time, as the senior most player. I have been playing well and that has accounted for my selection. Looking forward to the year ahead,” he told TNIE.

In the absence of seasoned players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, the onus is on Bopanna to lead the young brigade.

“I am happy to be part of this team with the youngsters and share all the experiences that I have learnt from Mahesh and Leander over the past decade. I shall do my best to motivate them and also use all my experience in the doubles event to help ease the pressures on Saketh (Myneni), who is making his debut,” he added.

What about the opponents? “Chinese Taipei have strong players. Lu (Yen-hsun), who is the number one player, has been in the top 100 for a few years now; (Jimmy) Wang just qualified to the main draw of the Australian Open. So it will definitely be interesting and hoping for some home support and great performance by us, which will aid us in pulling this through,” he further added.
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The selection came as a blessing in disguise as it did wonders to Bopanna’s confidence ahead of the Australian Open. After finishing runners-up in Sydney, in only his second tournament with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi post their renewed partnership, Bopanna hopes to taste success at Melbourne Park too. “It’s great to go into a Grand Slam feeling confident. We had a great tournament in Sydney. Even though we lost in the final, neither of us had lost a serve in the entire tournament, which is a big confidence booster. In the final, we had numerous chances. It was just that (Daniel) Nestor and (Nenad) Zimonjic played the crucial points better than us and we were slightly unlucky,” he said.
Of their blooming partnership, Bopanna said, “Me and Aisam have always had a great understanding and have had a reasonable amount of success. Since then, we have gained a lot of experience on the circuit, which should help us this year. We are enjoying playing with each other and are confident of our abilities as a team,” he added.

The Indo-Pak Express, seeded seventh, will play the Australian-French pair of Rameez Junaid and Adrian Mannarino in their opening round on Thursday.

Bopanna has joined hands with Slovenia’s Katrina Srebotnik and the second seeds will take on Raquel Kops-Jones and Treat Huey in the first round of the mixed doubles.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Sport / by Kristhika Gopalkrishnan / Express News Service – Chennai / January 16th, 2014

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