Rohan Bopanna on his journey to becoming tennis’ oldest world No 1

• Rohan Bopanna sat down with Mail Sport to talk about his inspiring journey
• He grew up on a coffee plantation in India with little to no access to tennis
• He finally became world No 1 at the age of 43 and is India’s new sporting icon

You have to go back to the 1980s to discover Rohan Bopanna’s earliest memories of Wimbledon. 

Growing up on a coffee plantation in Coorg, India, he would climb up onto the terrace and fiddle with the aerial until he could watch the action on Centre Court. 

He was inspired by those flickering TV images, although they were a world away from his life on the farm.

‘Wimbledon was the only tennis tournament shown in India,’ he explains. ‘The competition is played during monsoon-time back home, so it was always raining heavily. My dad would send me outside to move the antenna around and when we finally had a good picture then he’d say, “OK, hold it right there!”

‘I remember watching Stefan Edberg on the TV. He first won Wimbledon in 1988. Every interview he did, he spoke like a gentleman. I loved the way he served and volleyed. It was beautiful. To look back to where this journey started, it’s incredible.’

The timing of Bopanna’s journey has captured the heart of his home country. He finally became world No 1 this year, at the age of 43, establishing himself as one of India’s new national treasures. 

He received a special reception from their prime minister and was named GQ’s sportsman of the year. No mean feat in a place where cricket is king.

Stroking his silver-streaked beard, he reminisces. 

‘We had no gym so dad have me a wooden log with a hammer and told me to hit it every day. That was the weight training to build my shoulder strength. My family built a tennis court on the plantation and taught each other how to play. 

‘Dad introduced me to it when I was 11 and I was ball kid for my parents. He took me down to the court before school, early mornings. I loved it. He just woke me up and said run four or five kilometres as a warm-up. Pitch black, 5am, no street lights, with dogs running after you!

‘It was a pure outdoor life. The closest neighbour was three or four kilometres away. A special place. I tried to work on the plantation as a kid but I did all the wrong things. You’re only supposed to pick the ripe coffee beans, not the green ones. 

‘But I just picked all of them. We would swim in the river by the house. Greenery, fresh air, a little bit of altitude. All of the fruits and vegetables grown right in the garden. Fresh milk from the cows, eggs from the chickens.’

It was world away from the junior academies of Europe and America. An unlikely breeding ground for the next generation of Edbergs.

‘As far as tennis goes, there were zero resources. When I was 12, dad took me to the US to spend a month of the summer vacation at the Bollettieri Academy. It was my first time abroad. That trip burnt them dry of cash so it was the only time I went. 

‘Coming from a place that has nothing, to a place with 45 or 50 courts… it felt like Disneyland. I loved it. It showed me there was more in the world than what was happening in Coorg.’

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Doubles became Bopanna’s calling. The dry and firm grounds in the Indian heat naturally cultivate the quick hands required for the four-player game, so Bopanna followed in the footsteps of national tennis heroes Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupati and the Amritaj brothers.

His parents took out loans to fund his dream. He moved cities to live in a hostel and cycled 16km a day to training, before his dad brought him a motorbike for his 19th birthday. ‘A Hero Honda Splendour,’ he says. ‘I still have it in Coorg. My daughter loves going out on it and feeling the fresh air on her face.’

Bopanna spent 40 years watching others live out his dream – seeing tennis greats come and go – rallying in their shadows. Sometimes visa issues stopped him from competing. 

Time seemed destined to rob him of his dream but everything changed in January, when he became the oldest player ever to reach world No 1 status, just shy of his 44th birthday.

‘It took me 61 attempts to win a Grand Slam. In 2013, when I was 33, I reached my career high of No 3. I did not expect all this to be happening 11 years later. There was a time when I thought, “OK, it’s time to call it a day”. 

‘In 2019, I was taking two or three pain killers a day. There was no cartilage left in my knee. In 2021, I went five months without winning a match. My wife said, “If you want to quit, you can, but don’t do it while you’re feeling low like this”.

‘Then, of course the pandemic happened and life changed. During this time, I discovered Iyengar yoga in India. My legs were too weak to go to the gym and lift weights, so we focussed on building strength in my legs and aligning my back. Yoga made me feel calmer in my mind and I started thinking more clearly on the tennis court.

‘In 2022, Matthew Ebden was available as a doubles partner and I said to my coach, “Let’s give it one last twist”. Back in Coorg, they put up a massive screen at the court on the plantation for the Australian doubles final and everybody came to watch. 

‘Flying back into Bangalore Airport, my daughter had never seen so many people! That’s what usually happens for the cricket team. You turn on the TV and the first thing you see is cricket or Bollywood; guys like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. Now racket sports are challenging the monarchy of cricket. Tennis was dead and now it’s come alive.’

Following his recent semi-final defeat at Roland Garros, Bopanna enters Wimbledon as world No 4. There are no plans to retire any time soon. He has waited long enough for his day in the sun and will be savouring every moment on the green grass of SW19.

‘The last 12 months have been absolutely amazing,’ he says, tucking the tribal pendant of Coorg into his t-shirt. ‘It’s not normal for this to happen at my age. If it was, we wouldn’t be here speaking! I’ve been playing for 20 years. To get this time as an athlete after working for so many years… every person has their time in their journey.

‘Sometimes I think back and wonder how I got to this level. I’m very proud, mainly of the way I’ve been able to manage my journey. Keeping myself in shape. We had a daughter in 2019 and I never thought she would watch me play live. 

‘I thought she would be listening to stories that, “Dad WAS a tennis player”. Now she is here watching me play tennis – and for me that is beautiful.’