Ask Rohan Bopanna if he intends to be back at Wimbledon next year and the 43-year-old Indian insists: “I don’t see why not.” The oldest player competing in singles or doubles at the All England Club this summer, Bopanna is still a formidable competitor, as he showed in reaching the men’s doubles semi-finals with Matthew Ebden.

Yet four years ago Bopanna was wondering how much further he could push his creaking body. With the cartilages in his knees worn out, the former world No 3 was taking pain-killers every day. It was the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic early in 2020 – or more specifically the ensuing hiatus that was forced upon international tennis – that gave him the opportunity to do something about his physical condition.

“In our calendar year there is hardly any time to do anything different, but that break gave me four months to really try something,” Bopanna said. “My cousin was a yoga teacher and she said to me: ‘In your condition what you need is Iyengar yoga.’ So I went and tried it out and it made a huge difference. I was doing 90-minute sessions three times a week.”

Iyengar yoga, which uses props such as blocks and ropes, focuses on the structural alignment of the body. In Bopanna’s case it helped to strengthen the muscles around his knees and take the load off his joints.

“I’ve strengthened my quads, my hamstrings, my glutes, everything,” he said. “There’s no pressure on the knees, which is good for me, because right now the knees are bone to bone. Every time I lose muscle I feel the pain.

“Yoga in general is so much better for my body. It’s aligning my body and I feel my mental strength has also increased, because I really feel that I have time now on the court. I don’t get rushed into situations. I play more calmly. That has changed in a big way for me.

“The yoga teachers I have in Bangalore travelled with me for a couple of weeks to try to understand things more. I was doing yoga when I came back home, but I wanted to know what I should be doing before and after my matches while I was on tour.”

He added: “I’ve also changed my routine completely to work out exactly what works for me. Some days I may not even practise. The biggest thing for me is to keep representing my country. That’s my passion. I hope somebody back home in India might be inspired by what I do. That’s how I picked up tennis, watching a few Indian players. We need to have representation in these big events.”

READ NEXT: 7 Wimbledon statistics will help you win more matches

Bopanna, who made his senior All England Club debut 15 years ago, has missed only one Wimbledon since 2010, having chosen to skip the tournament last summer. “I didn’t come because there were no ranking points and the [men’s doubles] matches were over the best of five sets – not the best thing for my body,” he said.

“At this stage of my  career I’m very happy it’s now just three sets. It’s not just about playing. It’s about recovering, because in doubles there’s no guarantee that you’ll have a day off between matches.”

Bopanna won the mixed doubles at Roland Garros (alongside Gabriela Dabrowski) in 2017, but has never won a Grand Slam title in men’s doubles, though he was runner-up at the US Open in 2010 with Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi.

The loss at Wimbledon this year to Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, the eventual champions, was the third time Bopanna has lost in the All England Club semi-finals. Partnering Edouard Roger-Vasselin, he lost to the Bryan brothers in five sets at the penultimate hurdle in 2013. Two years later Bopanna and Florin Mergea went down at the same stage to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, who took the fifth set 13-11.

This year, nevertheless, Bopanna has shown that he can still be a contender for the biggest honours. He and Ebden arrived at the All England Club as the third most successful men’s pair in the world in 2023, having already won titles in Indian Wells and Doha. “As long as I’m in with a chance of winning tournaments I’m happy to keep on playing,” Bopanna said.

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The post EXCLUSIVE: Rohan Bopanna explains how yoga ‘has made a huge difference’ to him appeared first on Tennishead.

Jez Green has worked as a physical conditioner for former world No 1 Andy Murray. His most recent challenge was getting Dominic Thiem to the top spot after a long injury timeout. He wrote exclusively for Tennishead with a big fitness update on the 2020 US Open champion.

It has become very easy to forget just how good Dominic Thiem is. Watching him practice now, he’s as good as he always was. When he was on fire, two years ago, he could beat Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, at their best. He was the next one, he was the next number one, before he got injured, he was there, he was that level.

Working with Dominic, someone who has already been at the highest point and also is a little bit older, is an interesting project for me. He’s had a very funny history with fitness, he’s never really done a structured fitness program because he worked with a coach who was a bit old school and did everything on the court. We’ve changed that. We’ve put science into his fitness program, which he hasn’t really done before.

It has been a long road back for him from injury, but we completely trust the process. He ruptured his wrist twice within a few months, the first of which came in June last year. He got playing again very slowly, by September, October time, and transitioned softballs for a month or so. That’s when we were doing a lot of fitness, September, October, November, and by December, he was hitting pretty much full. He went to Dubai, and he made fairly good progress over there, but then he really wasn’t going to make it to Australia.

We had the idea of getting him to Indian Wells and Miami, so we kept him on hard in January and February which was pretty good, but he had a little bit of discomfort, a little bit of pain in the wrist. So we shelved Miami, and then that’s when we got on the clay. We were on the clay from March, April all the way through to now.

The clay was better for the shot he had to re-find – his forehand. Everything else was okay and, as he did the injury on the forehand, we needed to re-find that shot after the ruptures. You have literally got to accelerate on clay, it is as simple as that. If you don’t accelerate on clay, the ball goes nowhere. You don’t have to accelerate on grass or on fast hard courts the same way – the ball goes anyway, but on clay you have got no chance. So that’s why we kept him there, it was the only way he was going to find the shot was to keep him on clay.

But his body, because he’s done so much fitness over the last five months, is really good. The only thing he’s missing is matches, but he’s getting those now. His actual fitness and his body was conditioned and pretty much ready to go by Miami in May time, it’s just that the shots weren’t there. There was no pain in the wrist since about February.

I think we’ll start seeing the real, full-on, vintage Dominic Thiem soon. He now needs to play matches and now needs 25 high level matches to get back to the top and I think he’s ready for it.

I always work three or so months ahead of time, because I’m always planning where the body needs to go to. So I’ve got half an eye on Australia personally, but he’s ready with the work he’s done over the last three to six months and he was really well-prepared for the US Open for the first time in over a year.

He’s fresh, he’s ready, he’s fit and he’s pain-free. With another really big training block in November and December, I think he will be at another level by Australia. He will have full power and be even stronger, fitter, and faster than ever before. He’s never really done a strength program scientifically, so we’ve done a lot of strength work in order to make him much more explosive. I think he’s going to end up looking a little different than before, although maybe not dramatically. It’s not going be dramatic, but people will say: ‘Hey, he looks strong’. Everyone around is starting to notice this body is changing.

Dominic has been in two French Open finals, one final in Australia, and he won the US Open, so he’s made five finals. You have to think still that a full power Dominic on clay makes the French Open his number one possibility, but I think all of the Slams are possible. He’s very fresh and has very good motivation. He can have five more years left in tennis, so he has very good possibilities. Make no mistake, Novak and Rafa are not going to want to see a fully fit Dominic Thiem back!

Jez Green’s fitness app, Built4Tennis, is available on the App Store

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The post ‘Dominic Thiem will be stronger, fitter and faster than ever before for the Australian Open…’ appeared first on Tennishead.

Originally published on 19/09/15

You might go for a jog to help improve your fitness, but no matter how much running you do, it never prepares you for the explosive movement required for tennis.

With a mix of plyometric, an aerobic workout and tennis drills, Cardio Tennis is ideal both for improving fitness levels for tennis and for a standalone workout for non-players who find the treadmill a drag. Fun, fast, sociable and competitive, it is a high-energy workout session to music and is perfect for all ages and abilities.

“It's not about matches, or even keeping the ball in the court,” says Beverley Edwards, director at Zsig. “It's about keeping your heart rate up, burning calories, getting fit and having fun so it's a great way to get in shape. And it’s also a great way to get school kids and beginner adults into the game.”

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In Cardio Tennis, the most important piece of equipment is not a racket but a heart rate monitor. The goal is to train in the appropriate zone for 30 to 50 minutes in a 60-minute workout, and the easiest way of doing this is using a heart rate monitor.

Zsig stocks a range of heart rate monitors, sensors and new activity trackers by Polar, the official training computer partner of Tennis Europe. Polar also provides timing, monitoring and analysis to the International Ski Federation, England Hockey, the Rugby Football League and UK Athletics.

“Polar are at the top of their game, with a range of state-of-the-art personal devices,” says Beverley. “We’ve selected this equipment from the vast range out there as they do exactly what we want the device to achieve: tell us how we’re doing, tell us when we need to push harder (or slow down) in training, how many calories we’re burning and keep us motivated.

“Some of us now won't be parted from our dinky little devices and are rapidly turning into feedback junkies.”

Zsig is currently offering a special discount on the Polar Loop – save £35. Now £43.95 plus free delivery (RRP £79). 

Edwards said: “We’ve got a range of fitness and training tools to develop coordination, fitness and strength, with equipment focusing on resistance, evasion, reaction and agility – across the age and ability range. From a coaching point of view, we sell very portable carts and cartons of balls.”

Pro Coach Mini Compact Cart
So compact you can hold it one hand, the Zsig Pro Coach Mini Compact Cart is easy to carry and store and takes seconds to pack away into its carry case. Simply let the light aluminum frame legs spring apart and drop the holdall into the frame and secure the four corners to feed balls at a convenient feeding height. Holds up to 144 tennis balls.

Ball Pick Up Tube
Take the strain and pain out of picking up tennis balls after a Cardio Tennis drill using Zsig’s Tennis Ball Pick Up Tube. Save time

Other fitness equipment:
Agility Ladder 
Bouncing Medicine Balls 
Spaceballs 
Cones, lines and markers 

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The post Fit for tennis appeared first on Tennishead.