Rohan Bopanna explains why he will not play mixed doubles at Paris Olympics: ‘No girl ranked high enough to…’

Newly minted Australian Open champion Rohan Bopanna has revealed that he will not be participating at the mixed doubles event at the Paris Olympics this year. Bopanna had created history last week after he became the oldest grand slam winner after teaming up with his Australian partner Matthew Ebden to defeat the Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the finals of the Australian Open 2024. 

Bopanna,43, had broken the record of Australian tennis champion Ken Rosewall who had won a grand slam at the age of 37.

Speaking about why he will not be participating at the Paris Olympics, Bopanna said (as quoted by Sportskeeda), “Definitely, it’s going to be great that we have a representation in the men’s doubles. Who I’m going to play with is yet to be confirmed. June is the deadline, so I need to pick a partner. Mixed doubles will not happen because there is no girl ranked high enough to qualify. The only event currently guaranteed is men’s doubles.”

"The French Open won’t make any difference in terms of preparing for the Olympics because I will be playing with Matt Ebden at the French Open. I won’t be playing with an Indian partner. After that whoever I play with, I just need to try and hope we get at least one or two tournaments." the veteran player added.

The Sportskeeda report noted that Yuki Bhambri, N Sriram Balaji, Vijay Sundar Prashanth and Anirudh Chandrasekar are some of the players who could pair up with Bopanna for the Men's doubles event at Paris. 

However, Bopanna urged his countrymen to improve their ranking, noting that they are ranked around 60-70 currently which would make it tough for them to get to ATP events. Bopanna hoped that his probable teammates would improve their rankings in order for him to figure out who to play with.