We will be tough team to beat in future: Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan

Pune: Their eyes trained at an elusive Olympic medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games, India's top two tennis players, Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan, strongly feel they could go on to become a "tough team to beat" on the Tour.

Bopanna and Sharan moved to the semifinals of the Tata Open Maharashtra after a nail-biting 6-7(4) 6-4 17-15 win over Leander Paes and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela.

Bopanna, ranked 37, and Sharan (39) joined forces at the beginning of the year and have committed to play together on the Tour for the first time.

Bopanna said playing with a fellow Indian and that too a left-hander is something he has not done before and it has lots of advantages.

"I had had a lot of partners but I am playing with a left-hander first time. Playing with somebody from India is always better. Even when I played with Mahesh in 2012, we had great time, irrespective of results. We enjoyed the sport, so it's a bonus," said Bopanna.

Sharan, who had to change about 14 partners in the 2018 season, said playing with a strong server is a big advantage.

"I have never played with someone like Bopanna who has such a big serve. It makes my life easy. It's not easy being on court when he hits those powerful strokes. If we play well in next 2-3 months, I think we will be a tough team to beat," Sharan said.

The Delhi southpaw also said that having similar rankings also influenced their decision to team up.

"Since Asian Games, we have similar rankings. With others it was becoming difficult to enter into big tournaments like Masters. Tokyo is far but it's a good target to have, it will also depend on how we improve as a team."

At 8-8, Paes appeared to have hit a fault but since the umpires did not give the call, it put Bopanna and Sharan down by a match point. The big-hitting Coorgi said the experience of playing lots of such tense matches over the years helped them pull through.

"All four players on the court knew it was a fault. But you have to let it go. It was crucial at that time but we had to regroup. The umpire said since I was blocking his view, the lines man had to make a call."

Asked about his fragile serve in Thursday match, Sharan said it was because the "conditions changed".

"It was slower as the match wore on and all of us were struggling. They also got broken three times. But at crucial times in the Super Tie break, I got my first serve going. You always learn from such matches.