Novak Djokovic has a message for Rohan Bopanna, the new men's doubles world number one in the ATP rankings. Monday will see the latest release and by then Bopanna, hopefully, will have also won his first men's doubles Grand Slam title at the season-opening Australian Open. (More Tennis News)
On Thursday, Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden survived a three-set thriller to beat unseeded Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic and Zhang Zhizhen of China at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena and booked their back-to-back Grand Slam final. The Indo-Australian pair lost the 2023 US Open men's doubles final to Rajeev Ram (USA) and Joe Salisbury (UK).
On the eve of Bopanna's Australian Open 2024 semi-final match, Djokovic shared an Instagram story. The caption read: “Congratulations Bops. Amazing effort. And to do it at such a young age. Even more impressive.”
Hilarious it may sound, but the message truly captures the essence of amazingness, that state of being amazing. Bopanna, born on March 4, 1980, will be 44 very soon. And the Indian tennis star, who became a pro in 2003, is still going strong.
Djokovic, meanwhile, has his men's singles semi-final against fourth-seed Jannik Sinner at Rod Laver Arena lined up for Friday. The Serbian great is all set to become the oldest player to be ranked world number one in men's singles. The 36-year-old currently shares the honour with Swiss maestro, Roger Federer.