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The veteran tennis star Rohan Bopanna played out concerns regarding the decline in Davis Cup’s importance among Indian players ahead of his final game on Sunday, September 17. Bopanna is playing his last game in the tournament’s history against Morocco in the World Group 2 fixture at Lucknow’s Mini Stadium.
Bopanna, 43, announced his decision to retire from the Davis Cup tournament in July this year. He recently made the headlines after reaching the US Open 2023 finals in doubles where he suffered a heartbreaking defeat against the third-seeded pair of Matthew Ebden and Rajeev Ram. He also reached the finals of the Australian Open 2023 in doubles and semi-final round in Wimbledon this year.
The two-time US Open winner next features in the Davis Cup 2023 tournament and is paired with Yuki Bhambri to face Morocco’s Elliot Benchitri and Younes Lalami Laaroussi in doubles on Sunday. He revealed his thoughts on the Davis Cup and its importance for the players but also pointed out the lack of interest by Indian players in the team’s tournament recently.
“It has become too mechanical to just come, play and leave,” Bopanna told PTI on Friday. “There used to be a fantastic team atmosphere, which has been kind of lost in the last couple of years. And we need to bring that back. Davis Cup is all about team camaraderie, spending time with the team, being together, and everybody coming together. And I think that is a little missing link. We need to bring it back to have a successful team.
“There’s no particular reason why it’s happened. I think, in a way, it is just ourselves trying to find each other, you know, understand that the (ATP) Tour is different, Davis Cup is different.”
In the Davis Cup 2023, India’s Sumit Nagal will clash against Adam Moundir in Sasikumar Mukund and will play Yassine Dlimi in singles on Saturday and exchange opponents on Sunday as India expect to record easy wins.
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