However, Bopanna will continue to represent India at ATP Tour events
Hours after the early exit from the Paris Olympics, Rohan Bopanna announced his retirement from Indian tennis and has ruled himself out of the 2026 Asian Games slated to be held in Japan. The Indian tennis campaign at the 2024 Olympics ended quickly after both Sumit Nagal and the pairing of Bopanna and N. Sriram Balaji lost opening matches at Roland Garros. Nagal had given a good fight but lost out 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 to France's Corentin Moutet. Bopanna and Balaji went down 7-5, 6-2 to Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Édouard Roger-Vasselin.
However, Bopanna will continue to represent India at ATP Tour events. Indian tennis players has not won an Olympic medal since Leander Paes' bronze in Atlanta 1996. Bopanna had missed a medal with Sania Mirza by finishing fourth at the Rio Games eight years ago.
Rohan Bopanna and Sriram Balaji are gearing up for glory at the Paris Olympics!#Paris2024 #Cheer4Bharat #Olympics pic.twitter.com/gLfd0UgWX1
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) July 25, 2024
As Bopanna bid goodbye to the Olympics, let us look at his achievements.
Oldest Grand Slam winner
Bopanna made history at the Australian Open 2024 by winning the men's doubles title along with Matthew Ebden at 43. In January, they won the final at Rod Laver Arena, overcoming the Italian pair Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori with scores of 7-6(0), 7-5. This was the first Grand Slam win in men's doubles for Bopanna. His second overall win was the mixed doubles at the 2017 French Open with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski. He also broke Jean-Julien Rojer's record as the oldest man to win the Grand Slam.
The Indian tennis star made history by becoming the oldest player to attain the world No. 1 ranking in men's doubles tennis. At 43, the Indian tennis star secured the top spot by reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open 2024 with his partner Matthew Ebden.They rallied to a solid 6-4, 7-6, 7-5 win over the sixth-seeded Argentines to advance to their third consecutive Grand Slam semifinal. The previous record was held by the United States Rajeev Ram, who reached No. 1 in October 2022 at 38.
In March 2023, Rohan Bopanna and Australian Matthew Ebden became the oldest tennis duo to win an ATP Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells. They defeated the top-seeded Wesley Koolhof and Neil Skupski in an exciting final. In the final, they overcame the top-seeded pair of Wesley Koolhof and Neil Skupski. The Indo-Australian duo secured the first set 6-3, only to lose the second set 6-2. In the tiebreaker, Bopanna-Ebden were comfortable winners, 10-8.
For the first time in history, an Indian-Pakistani pair, Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi made it to the final of a Grand Slam event at the 2010 US Open. In a surprise to many, the unseeded "Indo-Pak Express" duo reached the final without losing a set and beat some stalwart teams along the way. They defeated the top-seeded American Bryan brothers and the Argentine 11th-seeded duo of Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos. In the championship match, they faced off against the second-seeded Czech pair of Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes. Bopanna and Qureshi battled hard, but the opponents were too strong to give in as they went down 6-3, 6-4.
Bopanna is one of four Indians who have won Grand Slam titles, the other three being Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, and Sania Mirza. He clinched his first Grand Slam title at the 2017 French Open in mixed doubles, partnering with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski. They defeated Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah in the final. Finally, he added to his Grand Slam collection with the men's doubles trophy at the Australian Open 2024.
