Jagdale where they lost in straight sets to Harsh Mankad and Rishi Sridhar. 1997: First Junior Title Bopanna started the year at Indian ITF Junior Tournament 1 where he had qualified for main draw by getting a bye and beating compatriots Vivek Bhakuni, Nikhil Murali and Arjun Shetty respectively all in straight sets. But he lost in the 1st round to Vijayendra Laad 1-6,6-2,4-6. In the doubles he partnered Samrat Bhasin but they also lost in 1st round to Austrians Christoph Haid and Hubert Suppan in straight sets. Bopanna won the 1st Arab Championships with Rohan Saikia. This was his 1st ever Junior Level Title. He then won Arab Contractors International Junior Championships with Rohan Saikia. He and Rohan then made it to the semi-finals of Kuwait Junior Open where they lost in a high tense match to pair of German Airan Kiebel and Pakistani Syed Nasir AliSherazi 4-6,7-6,4-6. He ended the year at Duncans ITF Junior World Tennis Championships where he had a 2nd round exit in singles losing to Tembe Kedar and in doubles he partnered with Vijayendra Laad where they lost at semi-finals to top seeds and eventual winners Indo-Brit pair of Manoj Mahadevan and James Auckland in straight sets. He achieved his highest ITF Junior Ranking of 601 on 31 December. 1998-1999: Last Junior Tournaments and Early Senior Career Bopanna started the year by winning Indian ITF Junior Tournament 1 with Bhatt Ravikiran. In the next tournament which was Indian ITF Junior Tournament 2, they were top seeds but got ousted by Saif Ali and Vijay Kannan in first round. He retired in Quarter-finals of singles to Vijay Kannan in first set. At Namangan International Junior Tournament, he lost in first round to Sergei Pozdnev in straight sets, he was top seed in doubles with Denis Surotin where easily won their first round in straight sets but lost in Quarter-finals. He again had a first round exit in singles at 18th Tashkent International Junior Tournament where he lost to 8th seeded Denis Kurmatov in straight sets but reached semi-finals of doubles with Sergei Pozdnev where they lost to 2nd seeds in straight sets. He then again reached semi-finals of EA-Generali-Cup with Bhatt Ravikiran where they again lost to 2nd seeds in straight sets. But his bad form in the singles continued as be failed to qualify for main draw after losing to Andreas Reinsprecht in 2nd