New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna believes a Grand Slam title is just around the corner, having missed out on a couple of close chances.
Partnering Canadian Daniel Nestor, Bopanna could only reach the Round of 32 in the year’s first Major — Australian Open. He reached the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals with Romanian Florin Mergea at French Open but the pair really shone bright at Wimbledon where they reached the semis.
“Every Slam I am playing, I feel very confident with my game and I really believe it is going to be that Slam every time I step in there. I know changing partners obviously does not always help. I started the year playing the Australian Open with Daniel then I played the French Open with Florin,” Bopanna said here on Tuesday.
“I am happy and really doing well with Florin. I am so much more confident as a player and when that happens it is just a matter of time. This year we a great opportunity of winning a Slam, especially at Wimbledon but we lost 15-30 in the fifth set of the semis. If we had won that semifinal we would have definitely been favourites to win the title but unfortunately it did not go our way.”
The Indo-Romanian pair reached the quarterfinals of the US Open last week.
Apart from that, they are regularly seeded at top tournaments and have also won two titles this year at Madrid (clay) and Stuttgart (grass). Bopanna had also won two hard court titles earlier in the year with Nestor in Dubai and Sydney.
“The only way is to keep fighting and believing. I know I am there and it is consistently happening; reaching semis and quarters, which is also the key and not just the one-off thing of reaching a final and then not doing well in a Slam. It is going to come soon,” said the World No.13.
The only time Bopanna reached the final of a Grand Slam was at the 2010 US Open when he and Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi lost to Bob and Mike Bryan in the summit clash.
