Bopanna to partner McLachlan at Australian Open
MUMBAI: Almost a week after his doubles partner for the Australian Open pulled out, Rohan Bopanna’s search for a new partner has ended. The Indian will pair with New Zealand-born Japanese Ben McLachlan for the season’s opening Grand Slam beginning February 8.
The 40-year-old Bopanna suffered dual blows in the lead-up to the Australian Open, first being part of the 72 players forced into a strict 14-day quarantine in Melbourne and then finding out that his partner, Portugal’s Joao Sousa, had to withdraw
after he had tested Covid-19 positive before his flight to Melbourne.
Bopanna had time till February 4—when the draw is scheduled to be announced—to find a new partner. “I got lucky with
Ben. Unfortunately his partner Raven Klaasen had to pull out,” Bopanna said on Saturday. “So I knew Ben was looking, and we ended up deciding to play together at the Australian Open and the week after that in Singapore (for the ATP Singapore Tennis Open). I’m happy to have found him, especially in this last moment.”
The 28-year-old McLachlan, ranked 47 in the world in doubles, has been representing Japan from June 2017 despite being born in Queenstown, New Zealand, where he also resides. His mother is Japanese. The doubles specialist attained a career-high ranking of 18 in
November 2018, and has reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2018 with Jan-Lennard Struff. McLachlan, who won a couple of ATP 250 titles last year, and Bopanna have never played together before.
Incidentally, McLachlan will be Bopanna’s third partner for the Australian Open. The world No. 38 Indian was initially supposed to play with Austria’s Jurgen Melzer but after the tournament was pushed back to February, Bopanna paired up with Sousa. The Portuguese pulled out last Saturday as the strict 14-day quarantine protocol in Melbourne meant it was too late for him to make it despite testing negative since returning a positive test in Barcelona.
Bopanna was out of his 14-day hard quarantine on Saturday. “First things first, I’m looking forward to just getting out of quarantine tonight (Saturday)!” Bopanna said earlier in the day. Bopanna couldn’t step out of his room for two weeks as he was part of one of the three chartered flights to have returned positive cases after landing in Melbourne, taking away the five-hour daily outdoor practice window from 72 players. After a day’s hit, Bopanna will play the ATP Murray River Open in Melbourne from Monday, partnering Denmark’s Frederik Nielsen.