Bopanna hopes to bounce back with new partner in 2017
Indian doubles tennis star Rohan Bopanna, who will begin next season with a new partner in Pablo Cuevas, said he hoped to bounce back from a frustrating 2016 where he failed to add silverware to his 14 career titles and saw his ranking drop to world No. 28.
Pablo is similar to Florin Mergea. He serves and stays back, Bopanna said on Tuesday, comparing the Uruguayan to his former teammate from Romania. “He is a singles player, but he has been playing doubles this year. A few years ago, he won the French Open doubles title. He reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open this year and has won a few singles events.”
Bopanna, 36, said he would tweak his schedule to ensure Cuevas can pursue his singles commitments. His priority is singles. So I’ll go as per his schedule. Wherever he wants to play, I will go. We start off in Sydney before heading to Melbourne, Indian Wells and Miami and then we’ll see where it goes, he said.
The schedule depends on him. But with our rankings being similar, we will play similar events. Maybe three tournaments in a year is what we’ll play different. These are 250 events, and not 500 events, Masters or Grand Slams.