Rohan Bopanna has played many memorable singles matches in Davis Cup ever since he made his debut against Australia in 2002. However, he was not amused about having to step in as a singles player, on an emergency call, in the tie against Korea.
“Playing singles does not tempt me at all, as I don’t play it any more on the Tour,” said Bopanna, after his fluent victory over the young Chung Hong in the first of the reverse singles matches, when he had to take the place of Saketh Myneni.
“It was not because of fitness issue,” shot back Bopanna, when the memory was jogged to 2008, when he and Prakash Amritraj had won their singles matches on the opening day against Japan that had Kei Nishikori.
Once Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi sealed the tie with a win in the doubles, there was none available to play the reverse singles then.
It forced both Leander and Mahesh to reluctantly play the dead singles rubbers in the reverse singles on the third day of the tie.
“We were lucky to be up 2-0 and finish it 3-0 in the doubles against Korea here. But, we can’t afford to have two doubles specialists. The match could have easily gone the other way. When you pick a doubles team, it is a technical call,” said Bopanna, asserting that players need to be ready to get on court on all three days.
Conceding the right of the leading player to decide the surface to play when given a choice, Bopanna recalled the fine services of Somdev Devvarman who is recovering from an ankle injury.
Bopanna said that it was important to play in the Challenger circuit, aimed towards breaking into the ATP Tour events and the Grand Slams.
“I was happy when Ramkumar came to Barcelona and stayed with me.
“Even though he lost in the qualifying event, he got to train with a lot of top players. It is any day better than training in an academy. That is the way to improve,” said Bopanna.
