{"id":93229,"date":"2025-11-01T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T17:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=93229"},"modified":"2025-11-01T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T17:12:10","slug":"indian-icon-bopanna-announces-retirement-22-year-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/11\/01\/indian-icon-bopanna-announces-retirement-22-year-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Tennis Icon Rohan Bopanna Announces Retirement After Storied 22-Year Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Indian doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna has officially retired from professional tennis at the age of 45, marking the end of a remarkable two-decade journey that saw him conquer Grand Slams and reach the pinnacle of the world rankings.<\/p>\n<h2>Two-time Grand Slam Champion Rohan Bopanna Announces Retirement<\/h2>\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rohanbopanna\/status\/1984534394745524521?s=46\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emotional announcement<\/a> shared on X (formerly Twitter), Bopanna reflected on his career, stating, \u201cAfter 20 unforgettable years on tour however, it\u2019s time\u2026I\u2019m officially hanging up my racquet.\u201d He described his heart as \u201cboth heavy and grateful,\u201d recounting his humble beginnings in the small town of Coorg, India, where he built his strength jogging through coffee estates and practicing on cracked courts. The post, accompanied by heartfelt images, emphasized that tennis gave him \u201cpurpose when I was lost, strength when I was broken and belief when the world doubted me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bopanna\u2019s career highlights include becoming <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2022\/07\/08\/neal-skupski-mixed-doubles-champion-ken-retires\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the oldest player<\/a> to win a men\u2019s doubles Grand Slam title at the 2024 Australian Open with partner Matthew Ebden, at age 43. He also achieved the world No. 1 ranking in doubles that year, another record for the oldest to do so.\u00a0 Over 22 years, he secured two Grand Slam titles \u2013 the 2017 French Open mixed doubles with Gabriela Dabrowski and the aforementioned Australian Open \u2013 along with multiple ATP titles and Olympic representation. He retired from Davis Cup duty in 2023 after his final tie against Morocco.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"-wvxRSq_T4x3C4u0r0y-Gg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1957246288\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'-wvxRSq_T4x3C4u0r0y-Gg',sig:'UFBkxemEBHjB4opWDLvgb3dpHEiGn7dPjNLehFqfFgI=',w:'594px',h:'297px',items:'1957246288',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The announcement paid tribute to his family, coaches, and fans. Bopanna thanked his parents as \u201cheroes\u201d for their sacrifices, his wife, Supriya, for enduring \u201clong flights, sleepless nights,\u201d and his daughter, Tridha, who inspired him to show that \u201cdreams are worth fighting for.\u201d He also acknowledged coach Scott Davidoff for 12 years of guidance and his fellow players for the \u201cbrotherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reactions poured in swiftly. Fellow doubles player <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nealskupski\/status\/1984543153525850273?s=46\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Neal Skupski<\/a> congratulated him, while fans and media hailed him as an \u201cIndian legend.\u201d Bopanna\u2019s retirement follows a first-round exit at the Paris Masters with Alexander Bublik.<\/p>\n<p>Though stepping away from competition, Bopanna vowed to give back: \u201cI want to help young dreamers from small towns believe that their beginnings don\u2019t define their limits.\u201d His legacy as a resilient champion who defied age barriers will inspire future generations of Indian tennis players.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Main Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran &#8211; USA TODAY Sports<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indian doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna has officially retired from professional tennis at the age of 45, marking the end of a remarkable two-decade journey that saw him conquer Grand Slams and reach the pinnacle of the world rankings. Two-time Grand Slam Champion Rohan Bopanna Announces Retirement In an emotional announcement shared on X (formerly Twitter), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4590,"featured_media":75965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[259,205,204,4980,9923],"class_list":["post-93229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-atp-tour","tag-australian-open","tag-french-open","tag-indian-tennis","tag-rohan-bopanna"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93241,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93229\/revisions\/93241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}