At 27,Rohan believes best is yet to come

Though he got broken in the first game,he broke right back to equalise 1-1 and then allowed Matsunaga to hold once for 2-1 before he then won eleven games on a trot to reach the quarters. He next faces Swede seventh seed Patrik Rosenholm. Along with Divij Sharan,he also made the doubles semis beating Karanuday Singh and Sudanwa Sitaram 6-2 7-6. Though he is touted to win the tournament here,the topmost seed left in the singles draw and the second seed in the doubles,Gajjar doesn’t want to think ahead of him this time. “The numbers only add pressure,that you are supposed to this,win that. I have had enough of that and I really mean it when I say that I want to take it one match at a time,” he says.

Though Gajjar was the original Indian product from the American Collegiate tennis system before India’s top-100 player Somdev Devvarman burst on the scene,he couldn’t capitalise on his winning momentum during his three years of playing the NCAA for the University of Arkansas from 2003 to 2006. During his stint with the college team,he also beat John Isner,the world number 39 player who took Rafael Nadal to five sets at the French Open. Once he turned pro,a shoulder injury prevented him from playing for almost a year and he couldn’t regain 100% fitness till 2008,when he had to almost start from a scratch.

At 27,Rohan has only two Futures singles titles and a couple more in doubles but he is not ready to fade away from the competitive scene without a mark. And he proved that with a singles title at the ITF Futures in Manipal last week.

“I don’t see my age as any deterrent. Whatever young players you see on the tour,the 17-18 year olds are Europeans,Indian players mature late. I feel this is my peak,my fitness and physical strength is not an issue and I am playing tennis to realise my dream and I will do it as long as I can,” Rohan says.

Though Rohan had started to gain good ranking points last year after he won a $15,000 Futures in Malaysia in July,a wrist injury again kept him out for five months and he couldn’t even hold a racket,thus witnessing the current slump to 552 in his ranking.

“My year-end aim is to start playing Challenger main draws consistently. I am working hard on fitness and other all-round aspects of the game,” he adds. The age question or the late bloomer tag doesn’t bother him,29-year-old Thai Danai Udomchoke is his good friend. “If that stage comes when I feel I’m unable to follow my passion,I have a Marketing Management degree that I can fall back on,” Rohan says about the same model that Somdev and Sanam Singh worked on to study first and turn pro later.

Sharan wins

Divij continued his winning run in the singles as well,aided slightly by an inexperienced Gurinder Singh who had qualified for his first Men’s ITF main draw. Though Divij was down 0-2 at the beginning of both the sets,he managed to finish off 6-4 6-3. “If this was his first main draw,it didn’t look like it,he was going for his shots,without any pressure,” Divij says. Indians Karunuday Singh,Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (4) and Vijyant Malik also made the quarters. The Swede ranked 1090 Lukas Renard,who took out the top seed in the first round also went through.