Rithvik Bollipalli and Niki Poonacha will make their first ATP Tour level appearance at the Infosys Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island this week. Rithvik has primarily competed in ATP Challenger events so far and has a career high doubles ranking of 114.
Niki Poonacha has won several national and international titles, including titles at the ITF Men’s Futures level. He has a career high ATP doubles ranking of 102. ITD representative Himanshu Bhagat got a chance to talk to the two on the sidelines of the practice courts at Newport on Sunday July 14th, 2024.
(NOTE – This interview conducted before Poonacha/Bollipalli played their first round match in Newport. They played and lost against Saville/Vukic 1-6 4-6)
ITD: You have won 2 challenger titles together this year. This is your first appearance at Newport. Any goals / targets you have in mind at this tournament?
Niki: Nothing, no expectations I would say this our first ATP 250 to play and we just want to enjoy it and yeah we are just hoping that we’ll play the best tennis possible.
Rithvik: Niki said pretty much the same things that are there in my mind as well. It’s obviously our first tour event that we got into and we just want to give our best and see where we stand and the goal is to just play, play as good as we can; prepare well and just give our best on match day and see what the result is.
ITD: You have played 3 Challenger tournaments on grass in June before arriving here at Newport. If you can talk about your experience there and how has that contributed to your preparations for this tournament?
Rithvik: I think the grass is suiting us very well, the results might not talk so. But if you go and look at the results we’ve lost, out of the 3 tournaments we’ve played, we’ve beaten Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley who are a very good team together. And the other 2 matches we lost to top 50 doubles guys in super tie breaks so I think that says it all. We definitely have very good capability to play well on grass and for the first time I think we did compete very well against these solid teams and yeah we’re excited about it I think grass suits are very well and we’re looking forward.
Niki: I think that grass suits us well, it looks like results didn’t go well last 3 tournaments. I think the second week we were getting better on grass but unfortunately we moved to indoor to hard court but then we were close in the second week. We played good teams; it’s unfortunate that we lost. We are hoping we will play much better than we did in the last 3 weeks and hoping for better results.
ITD: Just last week you were playing in Italy. Before that in Great Britain, Mexico etc. Thats a fair bit of travel. How do you condition yourselves physically and mentally for these tournaments considering the extensive travel?
Rithvik: I just go with the flow, even I don’t know the answer for that. I definitely do look forward to breaks and I think it’s important to take breaks and have training blocks. But we both don’t really have a base and we don’t really have a place to go and train so we just try to play as many tournaments as we can. Hopefully that will change soon and then, you know, we can take more breaks and focus more on training as well than what we are right now.
Niki: Yeah the travel is tough to be honest, it’s not that easy. But we just try to give our best in every match. But like he’s said we don’t have practice blocks yet, I started playing challengers since last year we are just trying to catch the goals as of now. Since the last 5 weeks didn’t go well so we are trying to chase some points so that’s why we’re just playing more tournaments now. But yeah I think moving forward I think we would cut down on the number of tournaments you’re playing and focus on quality tournaments. So yeah that’s the goal so yeah eventually hopefully we get a plan and try to train.
ITD: Your plans for the next couple of months?
Rithvik: We’re not sure about the next couple of months but shortly in the next couple of weeks we’re going to be playing in the US together and yeah until US Open we’re going to play the Challengers in the US and then see where we are at and then we’re going to decide after that where to go. It also depends on where we’re going to get in and if we get into some 250s then we’re going to go with that. That’ll be our priority but again it all depends on where we’re getting into and what our priorities are at that moment.
ITD: Two Indian Legends will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this Saturday. Your thoughts?
Niki: That’s great, really great. I mean to see two Indian legends are getting inducted that’s an honor, I would say, for all Indians. That’s an inspiration that should be aimed for; I know that’s a long shot. You need to win lots of grand slams to do that. So happy for that and yeah I would like to meet them, that would be nice.
Rithvik: Yeah I’m looking forward to that as well, I haven’t really gotten to know either one of them. So hopefully I’ll get to know them a little bit better and I’m really excited to see Leander Paes. They are definitely a role model. I’m just 23 years old so I’ve never really gotten to know much about Vijay Amritraj I know he’s a legend. But Leander yes, I do know about him because I’ve seen a little bit of him growing up and he’s just amazing and I’m looking forward to meeting him and seeing the ceremony.
ITD: You both have deactivated Instagram. Any particular reasons?
Niki: I was using too much Instagram to be honest. Yeah just to cut down on the social time. You know Instagram can be a time killer, once you open it just goes on so I try to cut down on that.
Rithvik: Yeah I’ve been off it since I don’t even remember, I don’t even realize that. It’s as much pleasant and I have my own things, my family members that I talk to. I have a lot of friends that I talk to on WhatsApp I just feel like that’s more than enough and that’s good enough for me socially. I don’t think I need to be more social, so if I think I need to be more social then I’ll probably look at getting back on it. But not as of now.
Photos – Florian Buechting (https://flyctory.com/)
