The reward has been heart-warming as the wait has been long, but Rohan Bopanna is not able to stay back and savour the moment, as he is trying to catch up with lost time.
Chosen for the Arjuna award, the 38-year-old Bopanna who had won the French Open mixed doubles title last year, and the Asian Games gold with Divij Sharan recently, would have loved to be present for the function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, but was compelled to fly to China for a tournament.
“The Asian Games gold was more special, especially because of the fact that I had a tear on my Latissimus Dorsi (shoulder muscle) and was out for six weeks. To come straight back to competitions like the Asian Games and the US Open, I was extremely happy with my performance,” said Bopanna, who had made it to the quarterfinals of the US Open, after enduring a long flight from Indonesia.
Bopanna was, in fact, in the reckoning for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. He is reconciled to the fact that his turn may later. “It has been a long wait for me to get the Arjuna award. It truly means a lot. I was heart-broken last year when I did not get it. I can surely keep trying in the future for the Khel Ratna,” he told The Hindu.
