Rohan Bopanna Retirement: Indian veteran bids goodbye to tennis for India, says 'I never even thought that I'll..'

Veteran Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna has announced his retirement from playing tennis in the Olympics and for India. However, before this he had also retired from Davis Cup for India. 44-year-old Bopanna took the court for India in the men's doubles event of the Paris Olympics 2024, pairing up with N Sriram Balaji. However, in the very first round, the Indian pair lost 5-7 and 2-6 to the French pair of Edward Roger Vaselin and Gael Monfils, and with this Bopanna's journey in the Olympics ended. After the defeat in the first round, Bopanna has now said that he will never be seen playing in the Indian jersey again and he has played his last match for India.

What did Rohan Bopanna say?

Bopanna, who won the Australian Open Grand Slam doubles title with his Australian partner Matthew Ebdon at the beginning of the year 2024, talked about the Olympics and all those tournaments in which one has to play in the Indian jersey and also that he would not be representing India in the Asian Games 2026.

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"This will definitely go down as my last event for the country. I totally understand where I am and now, I am just going to be enjoying the tennis circuit as long as that goes. This is already a big bonus for where I am. I never even thought that I'll be representing India for two decades. Right from 2002, making my debut, and 22 years later still getting to represent India. I'm extremely proud of that," PTI quoted Boppana.

The wait continues

The medal drought for India in tennis in the Olympics continues since 1996. Veteran Leander Paes had given India the bronze medal in men's singles at the Atlanta Olympics. After this, Bopanna came very close to ending this drought in 2016 but the pair of him and Sania Mirza stood fourth in mixed doubles.

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