Rohan Bopanna has been on a record-shattering spree in 2024. After becoming the oldest World No. 1 and Grand Slam champion at 43 years old just a couple of days ago, Bopanna would now have his eye set on breaking another record.
Despite the Paris 2024 Olympics being nearly six months away, Rohan Bopanna now aims to become the first Indian tennis player to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
Having spent the last year as one of the five top-ranked men’s doubles players, Bopanna will go into the 2024 Olympics as one of the favorites. But the biggest roadblock between him and the gold medal will be his partner.
With no chance of India qualifying in the mixed doubles category, all the onus falls on Bopanna and the men’s doubles.
Who should be Rohan Bopanna’s partner at the Paris 2024 Olympics?
Right now, India has five players ranked in the ATP men’s doubles top 100. While Rohan Bopanna holds the top rank, Yuki Bhambri (60), N Sriram Balaji (78), Vijay Sundar Prashanth (80), and Anirudh Chandrasekar (89) are all placed in the top 100 players in the world.
Let’s go through each of these four to see who’ll be the best bet for Rohan Bopanna and India at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Bhambri and Bopanna had played twice in the latter half of the past year, winning their Davis Cup draw against Morocco, but fell in the second round of the Asian Games despite being the favorites for the men’s double gold.
Bopanna last partnered with Balaji in 2018 and hasn’t played since. Balaji reached his career-best 71 rank last year and had a win percentage of 58% last year, including 13 wins on clay, the surface on which the Paris 2024 Olympics will be played.
Prashanth and Chandrasekar started playing together in 2024 but have a poor 3-4 record, including a first-round exit at the Australian Open. Similar to Balaji, both Prashanth and Chandrasekar reached career-high rankings in 2023 and won more than 50% of their matches, including 10 or more wins on clay.
Out of all the four, Yuki Bhambri will be Bopanna’s best bet. Despite all of them winning more than 50% of their matches and reaching new career highs, Bhambri remains the only one with whom Bopanna played within the last few months and even achieved success.
Having already claimed that he’ll play with Matthew Ebden until the French Open 2024, we still have time to see who is ranked best until the cut-off of the French Open ends on June 10.
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