Rohan Bopanna - The grand old man of Indian tennis

Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna has aged like fine wine.

A two-time Grand Slam champion, winner of 26 ATP doubles titles and a gold medallist at the Asian Games, Rohan Bopanna is one of the most decorated Indian tennis players of all time and despite being in his 40s, the veteran has shown no signs of slowing down.

In fact, the bulk of Rohan Bopanna’s many successes in professional tennis came after the age of 35.

Rohan Bopanna was born on March 4, 1980, in Bengaluru but spent his childhood in the picturesque hill town of Coorg, where his family owned a coffee plantation.

An avid sports-lover, Rohan Bopanna tried his hands at hockey and football before finally taking up tennis at a relatively late age of 11. It was not before he was 19 that he finally decided to take the sport up as a full-time career.

Rohan Bopanna’s achievements

After enjoying staggered successes in the junior circuit, Rohan Bopanna finally made the transition to the senior stage in 1999 and went pro in 2003.

Though he struggled to make inroads in the early days, Rohan Bopanna began to show signs of his talent in due course of time. The Indian tennis player did play in singles in the early stages of his career but he truly made his name in the doubles game, which helped him clinch all major career titles. Bopanna is generally considered a doubles specialist.

After winning a handful of titles on the lower-tier Challenger circuit, Rohan Bopanna finally won his first title on the ATP stage - the top tier of men’s tennis - in 2008 after he won the Los Angeles Open with American partner Eric Butorac.

Rohan Bopanna has won 26 ATP doubles titles since, with six of them coming in Masters (ATP 1000) tournaments.

Rohan Bopanna’s ATP titles

*ATP 1000 Masters titles

Bopanna's partnership with Pakistani tennis ace Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi was particularly fruitful for Rohan Bopanna. The duo, dubbed the IndoPak Express, won five titles together from 2010 to 2014, including the Paris Masters in 2011, which was Rohan Bopanna’s first-ever ATP Masters title.

For his latest ATP 1000 Masters title, Rohan Bopanna partnered Australia’s Matthew Ebden to win the 2023 Indian Wells Masters. The victory made Rohan Bopanna, at the ripe old age of 43, the oldest tennis player to win an ATP 1000 Masters title, surpassing Canada’s Daniel Nestor’s previous record.

Nestor, an old partner of Bopanna’s, was 42 when he won the 2015 Cincinnati Masters.

Bopanna and Ebden won the Miami Open 2024 together as well, with Bopanna improving on his record with the win.

Rohan Bopanna at Grand Slams

The Bopanna-Qureshi duo, who were also famous for their camaraderie and spreading the message of India-Pakistan friendship off the court, also made the final of the 2010 US Open together but lost the decider.

Rohan Bopanna, who made his Grand Slam debut in 2006, finally won his maiden tennis major at the 2017 French Open after clinching the mixed doubles crown with Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski. The win puts Rohan Bopanna in an elite list of four Indians, besides Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, to have won a Grand Slam.

The Indian tennis star also made the mixed doubles finals of the 2018 and 2023 Australian Opens with Timea Babos and Sania Mirza, respectively, and played in the US Open 2023 men's doubles decider with Matthew Ebden. Unfortunaltely, he lost all three.

At the Australian Open 2024, though, Bopanna created history and at the age of 43 years and nine months, became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era of tennis after clinching the men's doubles crown with Ebden.

Rohan Bopanna’s Grand Slam wins

Rohan Bopanna at the Olympics

Rohan Bopanna represented India at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics.

At his debut Summer Games in 2012, Rohan Bopanna partnered Mahesh Bhupathi for the men’s doubles competition and reached the second round. At Rio 2016, Bopanna and Leander Paes paired for the men’s doubles but faltered in the opening round itself.

The highlight of Bopanna’s Olympic career to date, however, came in the mixed doubles competition at Rio 2016. With Sania Mirza as partner, Rohan Bopanna made the semi-finals before going down to USA’s Rajeev Ram and Venus Williams, the eventual silver medallists.

In the bronze medal match, the Indian duo then suffered a loss to the Czech team of Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek to narrowly miss a historic podium finish.

Rohan Bopanna’s other titles and medals

An Arjuna awardee, Rohan Bopanna has been an integral member of India’s Davis Cup team since making his debut in 2002. He also won the 2006 Asian Hopman Cup - qualifying event for the 2007 Hopman Cup - with Sania Mirza in 2006.

At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan paired up to win India a gold medal in men’s doubles tennis.

The Indian doubles ace reached his career-best ranking, world No. 1 in doubles, in January 2024. He is the oldest man to achieve the feat.