India's promising Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna will test his skills against world number one Roger Federer after qualifying for the main draw of the Euro 680,250 Gerry Weber Open tennis tournament at Halle, Germany, beginning later in the day.
Bopanna earned the chance to play against the top seed in the opening singles match after pulling off a superb 7-6, (7/5), 7-6 (7/3) victory against higher rated Kristian Pless of Denmark in the third round of the qualifiers of this prestigious ATP tournament which marks the beginning of the grass season.
Earlier, the Indian had defeated fifth seed Evgeny Korolev of Russia in the first round after being one-set down and Simone Bolelli of Italy in a keen second round contest.
Bopanna now awaits the biggest game of his career yet as Federer is considered to be the best player on the grassalthough his supremacy on clay is still to be ascertained after he lost the final of French Open to Rafael Nadal of Spain yesterday.
Bopanna's Davis Cup captain Leander Paes has teamed up with Martin Damm of Czech Republic for the doubles event.
The duo, seeded third, will take on Chris Haggard of Czech Republic and Jiri Novak of South Africa in their first round tie.