Rohan Bopanna, India's top doubles player, announced on Wednesday that he will call it quits in the Davis Cup when Team India hosts Morocco in September. However, the Karnataka player won't be able to play his final match in his home state because AITA had already given the hosting rights of the tournament to Uttar Pradesh.
In September, India will play Morocco in a World Group II match. Bopanna, 43, has participated in 32 Davis Cup matches for India and made his Davis Cup debut in 2002 as he continues to play quality tennis on the ATP Tour.
Talking about his retirement from tennis, Bopanna talking to PTI from London said, ”I am planning to play my last Davis Cup match in September. I have been in the team since 2002. I want it to be held at home and I spoke to all the boys (Indian players) they are all happy to play in Bengaluru. KSLTA is also happy to have it there. Now it’s up to our federation to see if they want to do it in Bangalore.”
Looking at the highest number of appearances in Davis Cup history, Leander Paes has 58 appearances and has participated in the most games for India. Following Paes, Jaideep Mukherjee (43), Ramanathan Krishnan (43), Premjit Lal (41) Anand Amirtraj (39), Mahesh Bhupathi (35), and Vijay Amritraj (32). So, when Bopanna plays against Morocco, he will surpass the illustrious Vijay Amritraj in terms of the number of Davis Cup appearances. Bopanna won 12 singles matches and 10 doubles fixtures out of his 32 matches.
Bopanna is 43 years old, but he continues to perform on the Tour in championship-winning fashion. At Indian Wells in the United States in March, he set a record for the oldest player to win a Master Series tournament (ATP1000). Daniel Nestor, a Canadian who won the Cincinnati Masters title at the age of 42 in 2015, had set a previous mark that Bopanna had broken.
