Two-time Grand Slam champion Rohan Bopanna, amongst India’s most achieved tennis gamers, introduced his retirement on Saturday (November 1, 2025).
“After 20 unforgettable years on tour nevertheless, it’s time… I’m formally hanging up my racquet,” Bopanna said on his Instagram account.
Bopanna, 45, achieved nice heights as a doubles participant. He rose to the world primary spot in doubles final yr, changing into the fourth Indian after Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza to succeed in the summit.
Aside from a booming serve, the Kodava counts longevity as a serious asset. After capturing the 2024 Australian Open males’s doubles title alongside Matthew Ebden, Bopanna turned the oldest first-time world primary. The Australian Open victory additionally made Bopanna the oldest Grand Slam males’s doubles champion.
These accomplishments are all of the extra particular, provided that Bopanna needed to overcome extreme points together with his knees within the latter phases of his profession.
In 2017, Bopanna gained his first Grand Slam title, enjoying with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski within the French Open blended doubles.
In all, Bopanna boasts of 26 titles on the ATP Tour, together with six Masters 1000 wins.
Bopanna has lengthy carried India’s hopes within the Davis Cup. Having made his Davis Cup debut in 2002, Bopanna oftentimes juggled singles and doubles duties for the nation. Amongst his highlights embrace a five-set win over then Japan’s teen expertise Kei Nishikori within the first rubber of a 2008 Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie. In 2010, Bopanna outclassed Brazil’s top-100 participant Ricardo Mello within the fifth rubber to hold India into the World Group for the primary time since 1998.
Purav Raja, who has partnered Bopanna on many events on the tour and within the Davis Cup, spoke glowingly on Bopanna’s stellar profession. “After Mahesh (Bhupathi) and Leander (Paes), there was a lull. Everyone puzzled who could be the subsequent massive factor in Indian males’s tennis. That is the place Bopanna rose to the problem and have become the world primary,” Raja informed ‘The Hindu’ on Saturday.
Raja added that Bopanna’s success has stored India’s wealthy custom in doubles alive and flourishing. “Rohan gave all Indian doubles gamers hope that they can also obtain the identical stage of success. 4 individuals – Leander, Mahesh, Rohan and Sania Mirza – gave us all hope. We began to imagine that we may very well be top-50, top-40 on the earth. Now we see Yuki (Bhambri) near moving into the top-20. That’s all due to what the seniors like Rohan have executed. Success breeds success,” Raja mentioned.
In 2013, Bopanna, with an eye fixed on selling the game in India, launched the ‘Doubles Dream Of India’ programme in collaboration with Pune Metropolitan District Tennis Affiliation and Indian multinational company KPIT Applied sciences.
The programme supplies a help system to proficient Indian tennis gamers, together with travelling coaches and physios. Bhambri, N. Sriram Balaji and Divij Sharan are a few of the gamers who’ve benefited from the scheme.
Sunder Iyer, interim secretary of the All India Tennis Affiliation (AITA), congratulated Bopanna on enjoying a key function in lifting the profile of tennis in India. “We’re pleased with Rohan Bopanna for what he has executed for the nation. He has stored the tri-colour flying excessive for therefore a few years,” Iyer mentioned.
“Personally, I do know him effectively. When he was 15, he was in Pune (coaching on the Nandan Bal Tennis Academy). I noticed him then as a junior, and have since watched him develop into an impressive participant,” Iyer mentioned.
“Every and everybody at AITA is pleased with his achievements, and we want him effectively,” Iyer mentioned.
Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame inductee Vijay Amritraj paid tribute to a “incredible profession”. “Rohan’s dedication to the game, self-discipline on court docket, enormous serve, and talent to play alongside an unbelievable variety of companions is a outstanding achievement. I congratulate Rohan on a incredible profession. I actually hope that he’ll keep concerned with the game, and encourage and practice future champions to play for India in each the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup,” Amritraj mentioned.
Printed – November 01, 2025 02:54 pm IST
