Tales of an ace

THE WEEK Sportsroom with Rohan Bopanna offered more than a peek into the journey of a modern Indian great

- ANIRUDH MADHAVAN

Age no bar, cartilage no bar. Rohan Bopanna, at age 43—or level 43 as he likes to call it—became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam when he and partner Matthew Ebden won the Australian Open earlier this year. Not only was the feat impressive in itself, the fact that he did so with no cartilage in his knees made it an insane achievement.

There was a time in 2006 when, following a shoulder surgery, Bopanna wondered if he would ever compete again. Nearly two decades later, he is world No. 1 in men’s doubles and has his sights set on the Paris Olympics.

It was this journey of grit and persistence that Bopanna shared with THE WEEK’s Sports Consultant Ayaz Memon at the magazine’s Sportsroom event presented by HSBC at the bank’s India headquarters in Fort, Mumbai, on April 4.

As the stories swirled inside the colonial-era art deco building, the audience got a peek into not just Bopanna’s life, but also that of Indian tennis as a whole. The conversation—breezy and insightful—covered a lot of ground, including why there is a paucity of talent in Indian tennis currently, how Iyengar yoga and ice baths kept his body going, his love of coffee and exploring cities, the loneliness of travel, and how he came back from the dark days of his career.

As it turned out, he is proficient not only with racket in hand, but also on the mic. Sitting on stage in a light-blue jacket, wearing a gold locket with two crossed knives—a nod to his Coorgi roots—Bopanna talked about how he went from being a young singles player to a grizzled doubles veteran who is now like an uncle on the international circuit.