A tennis match at the Wagah Border may be a distant dream, but Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Quereshi are giving it their best shot.
Seven years ago, when Rohan Bopanna teamed up with a Pakistani youngster, he had never imagined that he would still be playing with him. After all, it is a bit hard to imagine two athletes from India and Pakistan on one team. A one-off event, maybe. But a long-term partnership looked unlikely.
Yet Aisam-ul-Haq Quereshi and Bopanna have defied all odds, to become a regular feature on the international tennis circuit. At Wimbledon 2010, where they reached the quarterfinals, they got notice for their ‘Stop War, Start Tennis’ initiative. They had t-shirts showing the message, their towels had the same message written across them and now they want to take the message onto a bigger stage. “The idea is to have a tennis match at the Wagah border,” says 30-year-old Bopanna, who has attained a career-high ranking of 38 in doubles. The idea certainly sounds ambitious, but will the governments agree to do something like that? “We’re hopeful,” says Bopanna.
Bopanna says that his partnership with Quereshi came out of a chance meeting. In 2003, both of them were looking for doubles partners and barely knew each other. The thought of an Indo-Pak duo must have raised a few doubts, surely? No, says Bopanna. “The nationality of the player didn’t matter to either of us, as we complemented each other quite well on the court.”
Off the court, both of them are good friends as well. They often travel together for various events and Bopanna says that their chemistry shows on the court as well.
Quereshi, back home in Pakistan, has become the face of tennis. He earlier had an Israeli as his doubles partner. Bopanna and Queeshi have only one ATP doubles title to their name, won in Johannesburg earlier this year. “We always used to reach the semifinals and finals, but it was a great feeling to break our duck,” says Bopanna, who has also partnered with Indian tennis legend Mahesh Bhupathi in the past.
Right now Bopanna is quite enthusiastic about their latest initiative. He is aware that people might not take notice or it might not make any difference, but that isn’t a deterrent to either player. “We just want to spread the message of peace — something which people know yet often forget,” Bopanna explains. They want to spread the message at all the events they plan to play in. They were praised by the international media at Wimbledon, and reaching the quarterfinals certainly didn’t do any harm to their cause.
At Wagah, if they get the approvals, they want people to come and cheer for their initiative. “It’s not a high-profile match in terms of star names, but it is the message that is all-important,” signs off Bopanna.