Indonesia :
There is nothing like the sheen of gold to cover up any manner of imperfections. Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan brought that all-important gold medal on Friday, when the country’s challenge in tennis came to an end at the 2018 Asian Games in Palembang.
Having suffered a shoulder injury at Wimbledon, Bopanna had waited till the last minute to take a call on participation. But once he decided to enter, the tall Indian stood head and shoulders above the field. The senior of the two, the 38-year-old Bopanna guided the team out of tough spots in the earlier rounds and hit the high notes in the final.
In the title round, Bopanna-Sharan were up against Kazakhstan’s hard-hitting duo of Aleksander Bublik and Denis Yevseyev, who had earlier in the tournament bullied past opponents. Bublik, who had reached a career high of 95 in September last year, and his partner are mainly singles players and even though they had all the power shots, they just couldn’t figure out the geometry of a doubles court. Bopanna and Sharan, India’s top two doubles players, had all the weapons, and more importantly, the guile, to overcome their crash-bang opponents. They beat Bublik- Yevseyev 6-3, 6-4 in 52 minutes to win India another gold medal in the men’s doubles event.
Prasanta Patnaik