Dilemma: It's either Asian Games or US Open, says Rohan Bopanna

Rohan BopannaAce doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna says it is a catch22 situation for him to decide whether to play US Open or the Asian Games in Jakarta later this year since the two events are clashing with each other However the reigning French Open mixed doubles champion indicated that sacrificing a Grand Slam can be an option for him if he was assured of making the seasonend finale This year Asian Games are scheduled to be held in Indonesia from August 18 to September 2 while the US Open isslated for August 27 to September 9 Bopanna had opted out of the last two editions of the Asian Games Gunagzhou and Incheon as well as he chose to defend crucial ranking points in 2014 and was in London for the seasonfinale in 2010 as an alternativeWith both Bopanna and Leander Paes both missing the Asian Games in the last two editions it did not make much of the difference to Indias medals tally as the country won a mens doubles gold in 2010 Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh and a silver in 2014 Saketh Myneni and Sanam India also won the mixed doubles gold with Sania Mirza and Myneni finishing on top of the podiumAsked what will be his preference Bopanna replied Still a very long way to go Sometimes it all depends on how rankings are placed are we seeded or not Its somewhere there with the US Open I have to make that decision later on in the year At the end of the day its not only the Grand Slams we are fighting for we are also fighting for London Masters seasonend finale he said on the sidelines of the Tata Open Maharashtra where he will defend his title Ideally if we are doing well in the beginning of the year and we have already qualified pretty much there then I can take that decision that I can skip a Grand Slam I have to do either if its the same week Bopanna saidAsked how important it is for him to play in such multi disciplinary events representing the country Bopanna said Its an individual sport Winning a medal for country is very prestigious irrespective of the event A Grand Slam is also as big for a tennis player Its catch22 situation Its not a winwin situation I have to sacrifice one of the two Bopanna chose to split with Pablo Cuevas and has paired up with Frenchman Edouard RogerVasselin for the 2018 seasonThe 37year old from Coorg said it was not a difficult decision to make Edouards focus only on doubles helped me make that decision It always makes a difference If you want to focus on Master series events and Grand Slams its better to play with a doubles specialist Even scheduling wise Like Cuevas in February was playing a lot on clay in North America and it was easier for me to play in Rotterdam or Dubai Even getting visa for North America takes 2 or 3 weeks he saidBopanna said by winning the French Open Mixed doubles title with Gabriela Dabrowski he has achieved a personal milestone but he has his sight set on bigger things The focus is to win consistently the Grand Slams and Masters series and win the London finale and not just be there as topeight Winning big tournaments is the focus he said Bopanna also revealed that he wont play with Dabrowski at the Australian Open I will play with Timea Babos from Hungary The partnership is only for Australian Open and see how it goes Gabriela also said we should look for new partner There were some close points which we could not finish Bopanna is defending a lot of points in Pune being a champion from the last edition along with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan However their first match is very tricky as they are up against seasoned Leander Paes and Purav RajaBopanna knows that they have a tough job at hand We have only a handful players playing at the highest level at the Grand Slams and Purav and Leander are one ofthem Definitely its going to be a tough first round for both the teams Its going to be great match tomorrow night Talking about the phenomena that Indias doubles players are more successful than the singles Bopanna said it can happen in singles too but for that to happen the country needs to host a lot of tournamentsIndia now have six players in top100 Bopanna is ranked 10 in the world and is followed by Divij Sharan 42 Leander Paes 50 Purav Raja 63 Jeevan edunchezhiyan 82 and Vishnu Vardhan 100 If we have lot of Futures and Challengers in India our singles players will also pick up There are a lot of doubles players because later in their careers after singles they still love the sport and see if they can make a career out of it he saidBopanna also insisted that even being in top100 does not make life easy for doubles players You are making into the top100 but you are not making it to all the tournaments You have to be 3035 in rankings to play a full calendar in doubles Its a long way to go Even to play ATP 250 its tough If we have tournaments in India players will grow We had two Challengers this year and we had two Indians becoming champions thats the beauty of the thing he addedCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereDownload the new 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