Yuki Bhambri quits singles, to focus on doubles only
Yuki Bhambri, the ace tennis player from India, has quit the singles format. The 30-year-old, who had a long injury layoff, has now decided to focus only on doubles and prolong his tennis career, something which Sania Mirza had also done midway through her illustrious career a few years back.
Participating at the Tata Open Maharashtra, where he could not qualify for the main draw in singles, he said, "I did the best I knew in my singles career and I am at peace with it. Maybe things were wrong, maybe it was bad luck, I don't know. No regrets, there is nothing more I could have done."
"It was more because of injuries and not for lack of sponsors. Sponsors were not there and I was fortunate to have done well throughout my career and could continue on the Tour but, of course, injuries were a big factor." He went on to say that the decision to leave the singles, was taken long back.
"I (had) decided in 2019 that doubles is the way forward for me and I wanted to do it while I was still able to play a bit of singles, which I did last year. I was injured. I came back in 2021 and in the first 2-3 tournaments I played using Protected Ranking. Then I went to America and got COVID and I got hurt again, so the plan was always there but it got delayed," he explained.
"The goal at the end of the day is to become a singles Grand Slam champion. No one picks a tennis racquet to be a doubles Grand Slam champion. I did singles as long I could but it was a lot of start-stop, start-stop for me and I did not want to be at a later stage of my career where it's too late to play even doubles and start from scratch.
"Sitting out with an injury at 33 or 35 years, I would not have been able to come back if I had to play Futures because you want to play at the top level."