'Bops' to the Top
It's never too late for a first in life…
I am an avid tennis fan (The Joy of Tennis). I have been since the days I saw Boris Becker’s diving volleys on the grass of Wimbledon. I saw Stefan Edberg effortlessly glide around the court; Steffi Graf take over from Martina Navratilova while I had a Sabatini poster on my door. I saw Andre Agassi with long hair, and then with no hair, while ‘Pistol’ Pete Sampras rewrote the record books. I saw Monica Seles get stabbed and knew that there was but a fine line between fan and fanatic. I saw Roger Federer change the game with his audacious angles, I saw Rafael Nadal dominate at Roland Garros and then everywhere, and I saw Novak Djokovic take them both down. I witnessed the glamour of Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova, the finesse of Martina Hingis and the power of Venus and Serena Williams.
There was not much from India at the time I started watching tennis. My parents told me about the Amritraj brothers, but I only know of Vijay Amritraj as the voice of Wimbledon coverage. We did have Davis cup though. I still remember Ramesh Krishnan battling against the French in the dimming light and coming back the next day to finish off an incredible victory for India. The team also had the one-time Wimbledon junior champion who would go to become the first Asian and only Indian to win an Olympic medal in tennis – Leander Paes. He became a reason to watch tennis. When he teamed up with Mahesh Bhupathi to become what the media dubbed the ‘Indian Express’ I hoped to see the Indian tricolour fly high at every grand slam – and it did for a long time. Along came Sania Mirza too, by far the best singles player from India, man or woman. It was a good time to be a fan of Indian tennis.
In more recent times, there has not been much to cheer about in Indian tennis but I have continued to follow the ATP tour. The rise and fall of the ever petulant, ever talented Nick Kyrgios is always interesting. Since Federer’s retirement, young players like Alcaraz and Sinner have revived my interest but when I watched Sumit Nagal beat Alexander Bublik in the first round I thought that was all the joy for the Indian contingent at this year’s Australian Open. I had forgotten about Rohan ‘Bops’ Bopanna. Even though he had reached the finals of the last grand slam in New York just a few months ago. It was a sleepless night this week when I accidentally ended up on the live coverage of the Australian Open. A nerve-racking final set tiebreak in the semifinals and Bopanna was back in a grand slam final almost a decade and a half after his first one. It was incredible. To be honest, I had long thought he had retired. It appears that he almost did when he went four months without a single match win.
But he didn’t; and as they say the rest is history. He is now the oldest grand slam champion and a first-time world number one at the age of 43 years. Or as he put it, he doesn’t think of it as 43 years as much as ‘level’ 43. There is a lot to derive from his story. Of not giving up, of perseverance, of rising out of the shadows, of following your passion, of doing what you enjoy, of not setting limits by age, of finding your limits and pushing them without breaking. But what it reminded me of most, was a conversation with one of my students almost a decade ago. Of me telling this young man how I had done my fair share in life, and it was time for me to ‘settle down.’ That it was the age of youngsters like him, and I looked forward to my son doing things. That young man had tried his best to persuade me otherwise and tell me about the things I still had left to do – like bungee jumping. I had smiled at him – I wasn’t going to go bungee jumping.
It is interesting that a decade from then I still don’t want to go bungee jumping, but I was having a similar conversation with my wife just last week. About how I felt that the best part of life was yet to come. Like I was now starting a new phase of life, one where I can do what I want to do, not what I have to. Luckily, I love what I do for a living, but it is time to follow my passion/s. It feels like Bopanna was right there to remind me that it is never too late. That you could be forty-three, written off, forgotten and yet reach the top of the world for the first time. Maybe there is still bungee jumping in store for me after all.