New Delhi: Ace Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna, after becoming the world no-one player in ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals), a day before on Wednesday, continued his golden run in the 2024 Australian Open with his Aussie partner as he reached his first even Australian Open doubles finals on Thursday.
The second-seeded Indo-Aussie pair of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden defeated Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac in a three-set thriller in the semifinals to set a finals date with the Italian pair of Vavassori and Bolelli on Saturday, January 27.
For some age is just a number! Congratulations to @rohanbopanna on becoming the oldest first-time World No. 1 in Tennis men’s doubles at the Australian Open🤩 #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/KjJlADhzO9
— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) January 25, 2024
Notably, Rohan Bopanna, on Wednesday, made history when the Indian tennis star reached number one in the ATP doubles ranking at the age of 43, becoming the oldest player to achieve this feat.
Rohan broke American tennis player Mike Bryan’s record, who held the no 1 ATP ranking in doubles at the age of 41.
Semifinal summary
The Indo-Aussie player of Indo-Aussie pair of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden went up against Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac in the semifinals at Rod Laver Arena.
Bopanna and Ebden made it clear that their plan was to keep attacking the player at the net. In the fourth game of the match, they broke Machac’s serve after the Australian charged from behind with two aggressive forehands in a row, forcing Zhang to make a mistake with his backhand. After serving out the first set, Bopanna won it 6-3 in just 32 minutes with ease.
With more aggression in the second set, Machac and Zhang exerted pressure on Bopanna and Ebden with their positioning, with the Czech attacking more from the net. Ebden’s serve, which appeared erroneous for the first time in more than two weeks in Australia, was broken by the unseeded duo, who then mounted a successful comeback in the match.
Persistence pays off 💪@rohanbopanna reaches his first #AusOpen men’s doubles final in his 17th attempt! pic.twitter.com/lSZtqgpNHE
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2024
However, at the same arena where he lost the Australian Open mixed-doubles semifinals with Sania Mirza, Bopanna was not ready to let another story to end in a heartbreak, as the Indo-Aussie pair gave their all in the final set to take the game in the super tie-breaker and finish off their opposition there to book their tickets for the finals.
