Indian doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna still going strong at 44 with routine of yoga and ice baths

TURIN, Italy (AP) — His beard is full of gray hair. His knees have no cartilage left in them. And his fitness routine requires daily yoga sessions and midnight ice baths.

At the age of 44, Indian doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna is still going strong, though.

Strong enough that he’s finishing up a breakthrough season in his 21st year on tour. A season that included Bopanna’s first Grand Slam men’s doubles title with partner Matthew Ebden at the Australian Open in January — which made him the oldest man to win such a trophy and the oldest to reach No. 1 in the doubles rankings.

This week, Bopanna and Ebden are playing at the ATP Finals, the season-ending event for the year’s top eight teams.

So how does Bopanna, now ranked 12th in doubles, keep in shape?

“The important part is to just focus on yourself and keeping yourself healthy,” he said, adding that the physical trainer who travels with him full time is sometimes more important than his coach.

“It’s before and after making sure you do all the right kind of warmups, the cooldowns, the recovery with ice baths,” Bopanna told The Associated Press. “Everything is a part of the journey before you even play tennis. Playing tennis becomes the easiest part.”

Ebden, who won gold at the Paris Olympics with Australian partner John Peers, sees up close how dedicated Bopanna is.

“He’s been doing all the work before, after, late into the night. We play up until midnight (and) he was still going in the ice bath,” said Ebden, who is no spring chicken himself at 36.

“Bops brings the power, I bring a bit of the speed,” Ebden added.

So how long will Bopanna keep playing?

“I’m waiting for India to get the Olympics in 2036,” he said with a smile about the declared bid. “Why not?”

Bopanna contemplated having his yoga instructor travel the circuit with him. Then realized that would be “pretty expensive.”

“I try and do about 20-30 minutes every morning of yoga,” he said. “When I’m back home I do a longer session, which is about 90 minutes of Iyengar yoga. It has really helped me and changed my fitness goals as well.”

After the finals, Bopanna will host a training camp in Mumbai for other Indian doubles players.

The country has nine other players in the top 150 of the doubles rankings and Bopanna hosts a yearly retreat for the group.

“Since we have so many in the country, why not come together and have a good training camp at the end of the year to start the new season (strong),” he said.

Bopanna was the third Indian man to reach No. 1 in the doubles rankings after Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. Bopanna and Bhupathi won two titles together.

Also, Sania Mirza was No. 1 in women’s doubles.

Bopanna — who has an orange, white and green design on his racket as a tribute to his country’s flag — attributes the speed of the courts at home to India's doubles prowess.

“Not many rallies happen,” Bopanna said. “Even the clay courts are really dry because of the weather conditions in India. So it’s very slippery. No matter where you go, which part of the country, all the courts play pretty fast. So automatically as a junior your hand-eye coordination picks up much better and I think that’s what has transitioned to doubles.”

Still, to have that hand-eye coordination intact at an age when most players are long retired, is quite an accomplishment.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori talk during their doubles tennis match of the ATP World Tour Finals against India's Rohan Bopanna and Australia's Matthew Ebden, at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Italy's Simone Bolelli, right, and Andrea Vavassori return the ball to India's Rohan Bopanna and Australia's Matthew Ebden during their doubles tennis match of the ATP World Tour Finals at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

India's Rohan Bopanna, right, and Australia's Matthew Ebden return the ball to Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori during their doubles tennis match of the ATP World Tour Finals at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

India's Rohan Bopanna, left, and Australia's Matthew Ebden talk during their doubles tennis match of the ATP World Tour Finals against Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

India's Rohan Bopanna, right, and Australia's Matthew Ebden talk during their doubles tennis match of the ATP World Tour Finals against Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

India's Rohan Bopanna, right, and Australia's Matthew Ebden return the ball to Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori during their doubles tennis match of the ATP World Tour Finals at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

India's Rohan Bopanna returns the ball with his teammate Australia's Matthew Ebden to Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori during their doubles tennis match of the ATP World Tour Finals at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who served two Republican presidents as one of the country’s best known conservative lawyers and successfully argued on behalf of same-sex marriage, died Wednesday. He was 84.

The law firm Gibson Dunn, where Olson practiced since 1965, announced his death on its website. No cause of death was given.

Olson was at the center of some of the biggest cases of recent decades, including a win on behalf of George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida presidential election recount dispute that went before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Even in a town full of lawyers, Ted’s career as a litigator was particularly prolific," said Mitch McConnell, the longtime Senate Republican leader. “More importantly, I count myself among so many in Washington who knew Ted as a good and decent man."

Bush made Olson his solicitor general, a post the lawyer held from 2001 to 2004. Olson had previously served in the Justice Department as an assistant attorney general during President Ronald Reagan's first term in the early 1980s.

During his career, Olson argued 65 cases before the high court, according to Gibson Dunn. Those included the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2010 case that eliminated many limits on political giving and a successful challenge to the Trump administration's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

One of Olson's most prominent cases put him at odds with many fellow conservatives. After California adopted a ban on same-sex marriage in 2008, Olson joined forces with former adversary David Boies, who had represented Democrat Al Gore in the presidential election case, to represent California couples seeking the right to marry.

A federal judge in California ruled in 2010 that the state's ban violated the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court let that decision stand in 2013.

“This is the most important thing I’ve ever done, as an attorney or a person,” Olson later said in a documentary film about the marriage case.

He told The Associated Press in 2014 that the marriage case was important because it "involves tens of thousands of people in California, but really millions of people throughout the United States and beyond that to the world.”

His decision to join the case added a prominent conservative voice to the rapidly shifting views on same-sex marriage across the country.

Boies remembered Olson as a giant in legal circles who “left the law, our country, and each of us better than he found us. Few people are a hero to those that know them well. Ted was a hero to those who knew him best."

Olson's personal life also intersected tragically with the nation's history when his wife, Barbara Olson, died on Sept. 11, 2001. She was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.

In recent years, his other high profile clients have included quarterback Tom Brady during the “Deflategate” scandal of 2016 and technology company Apple in a legal battle with the FBI over unlocking the phone of a shooter who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015.

Barbara Becker, managing partner of Gibson Dunn, called Olson “creative, principled, and fearless”

“Ted was a titan of the legal profession and one of the most extraordinary and eloquent advocates of our time,” Becker said in a statement.

FILE - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, left, talks with former Solicitor General Ted Olson, before President Bush delivers a speech on terrorism in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Sept. 6, 2006. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - Former Solicitor General Ted Olson testifies on a panel of experts and character witnesses before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on the final day of the confirmation hearings, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - Chad Griffin, right, president of the Human Rights Campaign, leaves the Supreme Court, with Jeff Zarrillo, left, and Paul Katami, second from left, the plaintiffs in the California Proposition 8 case, and their attorney Ted Olson, center, in Washington, June 20, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - Former United States Solicitor General Ted Olson, center, speaks with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, right, before an installation ceremony for FBI Director Chris Wray at the FBI Building, Sept. 28, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)