Two days after being within a point of a second Grand Slam title, Rohan Bopanna talks up a hitting session with Roger Federer while sampling an all-Arabica medium dark-roasted coffee variant. He has made peace with the defeat from the jaws of victory and is willing to look ahead to new beginnings and new ventures.
"That's the beauty of the sport. Sometimes you think you're right there. We had a match point and I didn't even get to touch the ball. At three points - two aces and a return winner - the match was over. I felt like I never even was in for a chance to try and win despite being that close," Bopanna, 37, who together with Hungarian partner Timea Babos finished runners-up at the Australian Open on Sunday, says.
"But that's how super tie-breaks go. At the French Open final last year, we were two match-points down and we won, here we were a match-point up and still lost. You'd rather lose 6-2, 6-2 than have a match-point and lose. But the good part is that we're playing good tennis."
He also makes light of falling short of the rigors that a training session with Federer demands, while heaping plaudits on the 20-time Grand Slam champion.
"I've known Roger for such a long time, right from our first match in Halle in 2006. We've practiced together numerous times and even paired up in doubles for IPTL, but there's just nothing like playing with him. He's so much fun and there's just so much you can learn from him from just the way he conducts himself. The only tough part is that the intensity of the session is so high with balls coming at you constantly that after two minutes I need a water break."
While Bopanna's former partner Gabriela Dabrowski, with whom he won the French Open last year and lost against on Sunday, has suggested that she only got to know of his fresh pairing through media reports, the Indian himself plays it down.
"The understanding was we'd play until the end of last year together. So there was nothing that happened really. My partnership with Timea was last minute and the first time we played together was really the first round of the tournament. We didn't even train or hit a few balls before that. But that's how mixed-doubles works."
But he isn't certain whether this pairing with Timea is for keeps either.
"We've not even spoken on anything beyond Australian Open. She plays singles and doubles so us pairing up in future really depends on whether she wants to play three events or not.
"For me, partners are always those who have a big game, hit the ball hard and play a little aggressive. It's that breed who've always helped my style of play, be it Aisam (Quereshi), (Florin) Mergea, Mahesh (Bhupathi) or Timea. My focus is actually the Master Series, Indian Wells, Miami and the clay court season with Edouard (Roger-Vesselin) and not so much the mixed-doubles at French Open."
Away from the court, Bopanna credits a fair share for the turnaround in his career to a few simple checks on his diet.
"For me especially cutting down bread has helped a lot. Two years ago I did a food intolerance test and the minute I stopped having yeast I lost 4-5 kilos. It changed the way I moved on the court and also gave me a lot of confidence as a player. I now wish I'd known about this 15 years ago. Also, having my wife, who's a psychologist, traveling with me has been a good thing. Though there's no direct counseling as such but indirectly somewhere it works."
Coming back to new ventures, Bopanna launched his range of speciality coffee on Tuesday, joining hands with a Bangalore-based micro-roastery and café. Having been raised on a coffee estate, he sounded mighty kicked, taking the modest gathering on a guided tour of how best to smell and taste coffee and even tell apart flavors.
"While traveling on the tour there were many times I took coffee powder along with me and gave it to other players. They loved it. Cilic (Marin) took some back home when he sampled it during the Maharashtra Open this year. Funnily, the very first day I walked into the locker room in Melbourne this time, everyone was like, 'here comes the coffee man'."