Rohan Bopanna and Sumit Nagal secure 2024 Paris Olympic quotas for India in men's tennis
Rohan Bopanna and Sumit Nagal have secured Olympic quotas for India for the tennis event at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.
Both players secured Olympic quotas for the country by their ATP rankings. Bopanna is already a double Olympian having been part of the 2012 London Olympics and Rio 2016.
The tennis qualification window for the Paris Olympics ended on Monday, June 10 and the National Olympic Committees must confirm quota utilization before June 19.
Doubles veteran Rohan Bopanna secured an Olympic quota by maintaining a spot in the top 10 of the ATP doubles rankings since November 2023. Nagal, who is currently ranked 77th as per the ATP, occupied the last spot among the eligible players in the men's singles category.
The men's and women's tennis events at the 2024 Paris Olympics will feature 64 players each. The doubles event will feature 32 teams with two players from one country comprising a team.
While Bopanna was expected to secure a quota for India in doubles, Nagal's incredible rise up the ATP rankings from 95 to 77 after winning the Heilbronner Neckarcup ATP Challenger on June 10, enabled him to secure a singles quota.
Each country can secure a total of 4 quotas.
How have Rohan Bopanna and Sumit Nagal fared at the Olympics ahead of Paris 2024?
Rohan Bopanna is expected to team with Sriram Balaji for the men's doubles event at the 2024 Paris Olympics subject to the quota being confirmed by the National Olympic Committee.
Back in the 2012 London Olympics, Rohan Bopanna partnered with Mahesh Bhupathi while Leander Paes teamed up with Vishnu Vardhan.
The pair of Bopanna and Bhupathi made it to the second round before going to wildcards Julien Bennetteau and Richard Gasque of France. Meanwhile, Paes and Vishnu Vardhan lost to second seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra of France also in the second round.
At Rio 2016, Bopanna who partnered Paes went down to Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot of Poland in the opening round of the competition.
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Sumit Nagal lost to World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev of the Russian Olympic Committee in the second round of the men's singles event.
According to PTI, AITA Secretary General Anil Dhupar acknowledged the receipt of a mail from Bopanna in which he expressed a desire to partner Sriram Balaji at the Paris Olympics. Dhupar was quoted as saying he did not have any objection to Bopanna's request.
"Rohan has written to us that he wants to play with Balaji. Balaji is a good player. He played well in Pakistan also, rising to the occasion. He also did well on clay at the ongoing French Open. Balaji is a big server. If Rohan wants to play with him we have no objection to that," Dhupar stated.
Sriram Balaji who partnered with Miguel Reyes-Varela of Mexico went down to the Indo-Australian pair of Bopanna and Matthew Ebden in the third round of the 2024 French Open.