If there is one word to describe Rohan Bopanna’s tennis career, it would be perseverance. Tenacity was his hallmark and a quiet legacy in the history of Indian tennis.
The 45-year-old announced his retirement at the end of the 2025 season after a 22-year career that saw him win two Grand Slam titles. Those two numbers alone should highlight his tenacity at the highest level of tennis. But his perseverance extends beyond tennis.
His career began during the highly political, frictional and factional Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi era. That he overcame that and emerged with dignity and stature (and two Grand Slam titles) is testament to his essential decency and clarity of thought and purpose.
A role model for late-bloomers in the world of sports, Bopanna’s perseverance is evidenced not only by his many oldest records, but also by his age-related statistics. At the age of 37, he won his first Grand Slam in mixed doubles at the 2017 French Open. He reached his second men’s doubles Grand Slam final, 10 years after his first final in 2013. His tennis peak came at the age of 43.
But for Bopanna, it was more about carving his own path than just numbers, records and statistics. Sometimes it was by circumstance rather than choice that he had to find his way, but no matter what crossroads Bopanna faced, he usually persevered and finally reached his peak at the grand old age of 43, 10 months after his brilliant performance at the 2024 Australian Open.
Winning the Australian Open title was a classic sports fairy tale: the underdog triumphs against all odds. The 43-year-old, gray-bearded, slightly stooped man bears no resemblance to the professional athlete who won the biggest title of his career and became world No. 1. He is the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title and the oldest and first man in tennis to become world number one, a dream that came true after 20 years on the circuit.
But Bopanna’s career has elevated the sport’s story to a universally inspiring victory. He had no cartilage in his knees, which prevented him from doing endurance training, and he famously considered retiring five years later because he couldn’t bear the pain of playing and the pain medication he needed.
He did it after realizing he had to turn his limitations into opportunities, as he spoke movingly in an interview after his breakthrough with partner Matt Ebden in 2023, laying the foundation for that victory.
And, frankly, he had a lot of limitations. From a pure tennis perspective, Bopanna’s achievements cannot be fitted into the usual categories. He didn’t have the huge success of a genius or the sustained accomplishments of a serial tennis champion. His highs were sporadic, but his work ethic was tenacious. On the grueling ATP circuit, he continued to persevere, winning small titles and the second week of Slam tournaments on a regular basis. But for Indian tennis, this was the only success to be talked about in the fallow period after Sania Mirza’s peak in the late 2010s.
Bopanna was the only headliner in Indian tennis at that time, reliable and ever-present. His career was a bridge from the golden age of the early 2000s to the current era of constant search for new hope.
A great statistic that shows his tenacity is this: He has won India’s only home ATP tournament since 2017 with three junior Indian partners: Jeevan Nedunchejyan (37), Divij Sharan (39) and Ramkumar Ramanathan (30).
Bopanna’s run at the Australian Open was the culmination of his career as he became the oldest player to win the Masters 1000 and the 2023 ATP Finals. It’s also his most memorable moment, with tributes pouring in after his career ended.
But there’s more to Bopanna’s rise to become one of India’s tennis greats over the past decade.
Only four Indians have won a Grand Slam title in the history of tennis, three of whom are considered legends of the sport: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza. Bopanna, the fourth Indian on this list, often flies under the radar when India’s tennis legacy is discussed.
Yes, he is a major champion, world number one in men’s doubles, Asian Games gold medalist, and an Olympian. But he never actually commanded the same men as the three pioneers. Admittedly, Bopanna hasn’t had the same consistency and success on tour as those three, nor has he come close to the standards set by Paes and Bhupathi in men’s doubles, but in hindsight this may be too harsh a light, as evidenced by the lack of successors to these champions.
Rather, in the 2010s, he was caught in the middle of a conflict between Mr. Paes and Mr. Bhupathi, and often became a pawn in the larger game of chaos in India’s sports administration. He competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics (one with Bhupathi and the other with Paes), but his presence was more of an afterthought. His relationship with the All India Tennis Association was so contentious that he was not nominated for the Arjuna Award due to his failure to win any major medals under the Indian flag, but the controversy is now a forgotten controversy as he won gold medals at the 2018 and 2023 Asian Games.
Here Bopanna again chose a different path. For a player who has seen Indian doubles teams clash up close, he went the other way and helped launch Doubles Dream of India, a support program for India’s male doubles players. They hold a camp every year, where Bopanna coaches and mentors young doubles players. This can be seen as a direct contributor to the growth of Indian men’s doubles pairs in the circuit.
It was also his intention to give back to the game, especially the often-neglected doubles game. “Everyone asks why there are no singles players, but I say let’s help the players who are already here and the singles players will start their journey. We just need to start building the structure,” he said.
This is a different kind of patience. Stepping into the sometimes uncomfortable back end of a sport to start something new. There is no doubt that he will continue this commitment to tennis, with his doubles team and academy, and now with the UTR Tennis Pros in India.
What I will miss will be his interactions and the quiet dignity he brought to the courtroom, win or lose. He was balanced and philosophical about his best and worst moments, whether it was winning his first men’s doubles major after 61 attempts or suffering a heartbreaking loss in the bronze medal match at the 2016 Olympics.
For most of his career, Bopanna occupied the unconventional third place in Indian tennis and went on to become a legend in his own right. His retirement will end a career that is looked back on with increasing respect. Despite all this, Bopanna persevered.
