Rohan Bopanna ecstatic at winning first Grand Slam - a mixed doubles crown - with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski; In 2010, he had lost men's doubles final to Bryan brothers Mike and Bob
Rohan Bopanna, Gabriela Dabrowski, Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farahin
India’s Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski pose with the trophy after their win over Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Columbia’s Robert Farahin in the French Open mixed doubles final yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
Hours after winning the French Open mixed doubles title with Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski, his first Grand Slam crown, Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna said the achieving of "one of his life's biggest goals" had yet to sink in.
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"It's been seven years since I was in a Grand Slam final (Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi lost in the US Open men's doubles final to the Bryan brothers in 2010), so this was a long wait. But at the end of it, it's very satisfying to win my first Grand Slam. Seven years back I was really nervous, but this time the hard work and sweat over the years ensured that I put in a much more mature performance," Bopanna said during a telephonic media interaction from Paris last night.
Also read - French Open: Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski clinch mixed doubles title
Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farahin
Swinging fortunes
Seventh seeds Bopanna-Dabrowski beat the unseeded German-Colombian combine of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah 2-6, 6-2, 12-10 on Philippe-Chatrier Court in a tense see-saw battle and the Indian admitted it was nerve-wracking stuff.
"At the start of the second set, the umpire called me for a footfault and I was really upset because something like that rarely happens and to see it happen in a Grand Slam final was even more upsetting.
'Tense encounter'
"But thereafter, things went in our favour and we controlled the second set match before the tie-breaker again was up and down. We were 3-0 up and then went down 3-5 before winning it eventually. In fact, it was so tense that I had to actually go back to scoreboard in the locker room after the match and check the final score we had won by," said the 37-year-old, who became only the fourth Indian to win a Grand Slam title, after Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza.
Bopanna thanked his men's doubles partner Pablo Cuevas of Argentina for bringing about an improvement in his game. "Pablo and myself have worked very hard. Thanks to him I've been hitting the ball really well. I'm playing my best tennis right now," he said.
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