After tennis balls, now it’s the turn of tennis stars to grace the football pitch.

A day after AIFF Media reported on how Sporting Clube de Goa’s Spanish Coach Oscar Bruzon is using tennis balls judiciously in training sessions to sharpen receiving skills of his wards, tennis ace Rohan Bopanna paid a visit to his local I-League club, the just-launched Bengaluru FC on Wednesday.

The newly crowned Doubles World No. 3 was presented with a club shirt by India captain and Bengaluru FC’s star signing Sunil Chhetri while the Bangalore- born tennis star the handed Chhetri a signed racquet.

Bopanna later said: “I’m a huge fan of the game and irrespective of what team is playing, if there’s football on television, I’m always glued.”

“So, to have a team in my home city is just fantastic. I’m going to have some free time in November and I’m going to make it a point to be at the stadium in my club shirt to cheer the team at games. I’m an official fan now,” he added.

(Report courtesy AIFF Media)