TURIN, Italy (AP) — His beard is full of gray hair. His knees have no cartilage left in them. And his fitness routine requires daily yoga sessions and midnight ice baths.
At the age of 44, Indian doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna is still going strong, though.
Strong enough that he’s finishing up a breakthrough season in his 21st year on tour. A season that included Bopanna’s first Grand Slam men’s doubles title with partner Matthew Ebden at the Australian Open in January — which made him the oldest man to win such a trophy and the oldest to reach No. 1 in the doubles rankings.
This week, Bopanna and Ebden are playing at the ATP Finals, the season-ending event for the year’s top eight teams.
So how does Bopanna, now ranked 12th in doubles, keep in shape?
“The important part is to just focus on yourself and keeping yourself healthy,” he said, adding that the physical trainer who travels with him full time is sometimes more important than his coach.
“It’s before and after making sure you do all the right kind of warmups, the cooldowns, the recovery with ice baths,” Bopanna told The Associated Press. “Everything is a part of the journey before you even play tennis. Playing tennis becomes the easiest part.”
Bopanna is waiting for India to get the Olympics in 2036
Ebden, who won gold at the Paris Olympics with Australian partner John Peers, sees up close how dedicated Bopanna is.
“He’s been doing all the work before, after, late into the night. We play up until midnight (and) he was still going in the ice bath,” said Ebden, who is no spring chicken himself at 36.
“Bops brings the power, I bring a bit of the speed,” Ebden added.
So how long will Bopanna keep playing?
“I’m waiting for India to get the Olympics in 2036,” he said with a smile about the declared bid. “Why not?”
Bopanna’s yoga sessions stretch from 20 minutes to 1½ hours
Bopanna contemplated having his yoga instructor travel the circuit with him. Then realized that would be “pretty expensive.”
“I try and do about 20-30 minutes every morning of yoga,” he said. “When I’m back home I do a longer session, which is about 90 minutes of Iyengar yoga. It has really helped me and changed my fitness goals as well.”
Paes, Bhupathi and Mirza also reached No. 1 in doubles for India
After the finals, Bopanna will host a training camp in Mumbai for other Indian doubles players.
The country has nine other players in the top 150 of the doubles rankings and Bopanna hosts a yearly retreat for the group.
“Since we have so many in the country, why not come together and have a good training camp at the end of the year to start the new season (strong),” he said.
Bopanna was the third Indian man to reach No. 1 in the doubles rankings after Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. Bopanna and Bhupathi won two titles together.
Also, Sania Mirza was No. 1 in women’s doubles.
India’s doubles tradition linked to fast courts
Bopanna — who has an orange, white and green design on his racket as a tribute to his country’s flag — attributes the speed of the courts at home to India’s doubles prowess.
“Not many rallies happen,” Bopanna said. “Even the clay courts are really dry because of the weather conditions in India. So it’s very slippery. No matter where you go, which part of the country, all the courts play pretty fast. So automatically as a junior your hand-eye coordination picks up much better and I think that’s what has transitioned to doubles.”
Still, to have that hand-eye coordination intact at an age when most players are long retired, is quite an accomplishment.
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