as a wildcard but he lost in 1st round to Željko Krajan in straight sets. Bopanna was selected for Davis Cup tie against Japan. Bopanna defeated Jun Kato 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 6-4 in one hour 54 minutes for his first win in Davis Cup. India defeated Japan 4-1 in the Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie. In the next tie against New Zealand, Bopanna went down to Alistair Hunt in a gruelling five setter. But he won his next singles match against James Shortall in straight sets as India won the tie 4-1 to qualify for world group play-offs. He won the Denver Challenger with his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi where they were the top seeds. This was his first ATP Challenger Series title(now known as ATP Challenger Tour). Before Denver they have reached the semi-finals of Manchester Trophy. He then won Indonesia F1 Futures title where he defeated Febi Wediyanto in the final. In the Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie against Netherlands, Bopanna lost his singles match against Martin Verkerk. In the important doubles match, he and Mahesh Bhupathi lost to John van Lottum and Martin Verkerk. India were clean sweep 5-0 by Holland in the tie. Bopanna won 2 gold medals at Afro-Asian Games. In the doubles, he partnered Mahesh Bhupathi where they defeated Adelo Abadia and Johnny Arcilla of Philippines in semi-finals in straight sets. Then, compatriots Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya and Vinod Sridhar 6-4,3-6,6-2 in the gold medal match. In the team event, Bopanna put India on 1-0 lead in the gold medal tie with a run-away 6-2 6-2 win over Rotimi Jegede before Prakash Amritraj overcame Sunday Maku, the top ranked Nigerian, to carve out a 6-4 6-1 victory. In the doubles match, Vijay Kannan and Vishal Uppal blew away Balalola Abdul and Maku 6-1 6-4 as India defeated Nigeria 3-0 in the gold medal match. 2004–2005: More Futures Titles and Struggle with Injuries Bopanna was out for 8 weeks due to a bicep injury which made him miss 2004 Chennai Open and Davis Cup tie against New Zealand. He started off the season at India F1A Futures where he lost to Alexey Kedryuk in straight sets and in doubles he was 3rd seed with Vijay Kannan but they lost to Rupesh Roy and Divij Sharan. He won the Kuwait F1 Futures tournament with Mustafa Ghouse. In the singles, he reached semi-finals where he lost to