Bhambri in a good position to carry on India’s doubles legacy: Klaasen

For more than two decades, doubles tennis in India has always had an active, thriving gold standard. Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna won a combined 16 doubles and 22 mixed doubles Majors, and were all ranked No. 1 in the world.

But next week’s Australian Open will be the first Grand Slam tournament after the retirement of the last of the stalwarts, Bopanna, and it will be up to Yuki Bhambri to shoulder the nation’s hopes.

And if the 33-year-old’s 2025 is anything to go by – a first ATP 500 title in Dubai, a maiden run to a Slam semifinal at the US Open and a career-high ranking of 21 – he has warmed up rather well.

Raven Klaasen, Major finalist in doubles and a former World No. 7, who is currently a coach with the Doubles Dream of India project, felt Yuki was in a good position to carry on the legacy.

“It’s perfectly poised for somebody to take over, but it’s hard work,” he said on the sidelines of the Dafa News Bengaluru Open. “While Yuki has been playing for a very long time, he’s only really focused on doubles for a very short time [starting 2024].

“Bopanna, Mahesh, Leander… they spent extended periods playing doubles. But he [Bhambri] started off as a very good tennis player. So I imagine him getting better.”

The South African pointed to Bhambri’s stirring semifinal run at Flushing Meadows – partnering New Zealand’s Michael Venus – as a potential harbinger. Though Yuki will be playing with Swede Andre Goransson in Melbourne, the result in New York showed what he was capable of in the company of an able ally.

“Yuki brings consistency and the ability to play in big moments under pressure but power is perhaps not his biggest thing,” Klaasen said. “In my perfect-case scenario, he would be the stable one and somebody else would be taking control of the power side.

“We saw what happened at the US Open. But that’s just step one. To get to the top, you have to have multiple good results. Yuki’s always been a great ball-striker. He’s gotten better at the net and serve has improved too. So there’s nothing really stopping him from being very good.”