London: Some things are simply meant to be. The same could be said of the doubles pairing between India’s Rohan Bopanna and Romanian Florin Mergea.
Rewind to October last year. At the end of the Tokyo Open, Bopanna was without a doubles partner. The Indian was hoping Mergea could play with him at the following week’s Shanghai Masters.
Mergea, however, had no plans to travel to China. Instead, he was too busy with his wife trying to book tickets to travel back to Bucharest. His first attempt at booking tickets via the mobile phone failed. They walked down to an internet cafe to try and book tickets but had no success. They hurried back to the hotel and that was when they chanced upon Bopanna.
They had a talk.
Bopanna convinced Mergea that he ought to play the Masters solely because of his higher ranking. The Romanian consulted his wife and agreed to travel to Shanghai where the duo made it to the semi-finals.
“I wanted to play in Shanghai, but I didn’t want to go there and get a zero in the rankings by just playing with anyone that I did not feel confident with. Honestly, I had told my wife about playing alongside Rohan, and then as we are rushing to pick up our luggage and head to the airport we bump into Rohan,” Mergea recounted during a chat up the River Thames during the course of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals last week.
That was the sign of things to follow. The duo finally came together on a regular basis from April and, by the end of the Paris Masters earlier this month, had accumulated enough points to earn a swing at the year-ending tournament at the O2 Arena. For Mergea, it was his first appearance at the O2 and for Bopanna it was the third time. There were nervous moments, but those were forgotten once they got on the court before an adoring crowd of 17,000 fans.
They faced the world number one ranked Bryan brothers Mike and Bob in their opener but what looked like a baptism by fire ended with them winning in straight sets in a virtual repeat of their quarter-final match-up at The Wimbledon earlier this season.
“I think we are a work in progress. We have played just ten or 12 tournaments so far and have achieved so much in such a short time. When you play with somebody for many years, then there are a lot of things that can happen. But right now we are still trying to understand each other and see how to really communicate and build a strong relationship,” Bopanna said.
“I think things are easier when you are playing well. It makes a difference when things are tougher. That’s when you have to really stick together and push each other. Communicating with each other is going to help. I think it is still a learning process for both of us and the good thing is that both of us are still very fresh at this,” he added.
With everything going their way, the pair can see a fulfilling time ahead on the tour. “We are getting along with each other with every passing day. There are small things that happen every day, and the mere fact that we are spending a lot of time together is by itself so good for us to know each other better. The whole team binds us together,” Mergea said.
“The next big thing we need is to win a Grand Slam and that’s the big goal. Practising together and figuring out what we need to do on court is getting better as well. Finally, it is a bunch of little things that we need to get right,” the Romanian added.
“Honestly, this has been the most successful partnership for me so far. We are not only doing well as a team, but doing well in the bigger tournaments and that is the key. When you get to a certain level, then you don’t want to just to make it to the quarters or the semis, you want the big ones,” Bopanna said.
“The cue will be to hit the ground running early from next season. We need to have a strong start from January. We go into any event seeking a strong start. We give it a 100 per cent every time we are on court. Why just one Grand Slam? We want all four,” the Indian added.
