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Tennis Star Rohan Bopanna Becoming World No. 1 At 43 Proves Age Really Doesn’t Matter

byDisha Banerjee
25th January 2024
2 minute read

Doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna is not your typical tennis player. From growing up in Coorg to making a name for himself globally, his journey is pretty amazing. He’s not just good at tennis. He’s a role model beyond the tennis court.

With a pepper-salt beard, he became the oldest player to become world no. 1 after he and his partner Matt Ebden defeated Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Australian Open, reported Moneycontrol.

 

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43 is the kind of age at which sportspersons are expected to retire. If not retired, they are often seen fading into oblivion. After all, sportspersons are known to peak in their 20s or early 30s, maximum. By becoming world no. 1 at 43, Rohan Bopanna has proved that wrinkles and weaker knees have got nothing on a person who loves their sport and continues to give every ounce of their being to excel at it.

“For every player, being No. 1 is a dream. It was my dream. My perseverance, to stay in the sport and to keep fighting and to keep working hard (paid off). It hasn’t sunk in fully. Indian tennis needed this. We don’t really have many tennis players coming up. This is going to inspire a lot of people, not just in tennis. People all over the world, being 40 and above, it’s just going to inspire them in a different way,” TOI quoted him saying.

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Hailing from Coorg, Karnataka, Bopanna entered the tournament with a career-high ranking of world no. 3 in the individual doubles ranking, having equalled his career-high of July 2013.

“I have no cartilages on my knees. They are completely worn out,” Bopanna said.

His partner, Matt Ebden, had something incredible to say about this feat.

“It would’ve been easy for him to think, I’ll just have another decent year and retire in the next couple of years, but I asked him to commit fully. He pushed himself. We pushed each other. He pushed me to improve. We both improved. We worked hard together. This is a testament of all that, and incredible effort,” he said.

 

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Bopanna feels that this win of his has put Indian tennis back on the map because not much was happening in this field.

“Nothing at all was happening in Indian tennis. You (journalists) also did not have much to write about, so this has happened at the right time,” he said, as quoted by Reddit.

Congratulatory messages poured in for him from everywhere! Here’s a look at what people have been saying:

This man has etched history!

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