Indian tennis icon Rohan Bopanna, who recently achieved the men’s doubles World No.1 Rank for the first time in his career and topped it off with his maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open doubles event at the wise-old age of 43 serves as an inspiration for budding sportsmen.
News18 caught up with the star from Bangalore as he opened up on his crowning moment and the need for one to believe in oneself to accomplish their sporting goals.
Bopanna, who crashed to the court in jubilation after his 7-6, 7-5 win alongside teammate Matthew Ebden over the Italian duo of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the champions clash at the Rod Laver Arena, said that the feeling of winning a major title levied him off a huge burden.
“I think it was an amazing, proud feeling. And most importantly, I mean you end up carrying this, like, feel like you’re carrying a burden of whatever that is. Everything just flows, flew away, rather, I would say, flew away. And that’s why I ended up falling right, on that court," the 43-year-old began.
“I mean, it was such an amazing, fitting feeling I felt after so many years of trying to get there. You’re constantly trying to cross the hurdle," he added.
“As an athlete, it was a personal goal to get better from what you have done. I mean the finals were something I’d achieved before. I wanted to get to that next step. The minute it reached match point, there were nerves and then Matt hit that great serve and I had this easy smash to put away and I was telling myself, don’t miss it, don’t miss it. But yeah, thankfully, we got through that," he explained.
Bopanna, who has been on the tennis circuit for over two decades now opined that the journey to success begins with self-belief and that conviction is of utmost importance.
“I think self-belief. You have to believe in yourself first. No matter who’s around you believes it for you or says whatever. If you don’t believe in yourself, it is not going to happen."
“I think that journey should be played in your mind yourself first before everything else starts around you," he concluded.
Bopanna and Ebden opened their championship run with a 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 first-round win over James Duckworth and Marc Polmans before posting a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over John Millman and Edward Winter in the second round.
Bopanna and his teammate worked their way past Wesly Koolhof and Nikola Mektic in the third round with a 7-6, 7-6 win before getting the better of Maximo Gonzales and Andreas Molteni in their 6-4, 7-6 fourth-round victory.
The pair sealed their berth in the summit clash with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 triumph over Zhang Zhinzhen and Tomas Machac in the semifinal, before going on to ultimately claim the title down under.
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