Rohan Bopanna one step away from history

Melbourne, January 25

Rohan Bopanna earned himself one more opportunity to win a Grand Slam title by reaching the Australian Open men’s doubles final with Australian partner Matthew Ebden after prevailing in a tense semifinal against Tomas Machac and Zhang Zhizhen here today.

The second-seeded Indo-Australian pair faced some stiff resistance from their rivals in the third set but eventually the experience of playing super tiebreakers helped them nail the finish with a 6-3 3-6 7-6(10-7) scoreline after two hours and two minutes. World No. 54 Zhang and No. 75 Machac are quality singles players, featuring in the top-100 list and their powerful hitting from the baseline did make it a tough contest for the experienced Bopanna and Ebden.

A day after he was assured of becoming the world No. 1 doubles player, Bopanna served well on big points and also manage to pull out the strokes and tricks at crucial junctures. Bopanna has reached the US Open final twice (2013, 2023) but a Major trophy has eluded him in his career.

Now, at the fag end of his career at the age of 43, he will have the chance to tick that box on Saturday.

Bopanna and Ebden will face Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, who beat German team of Yannick Hanfmann and Dominik Koepfer 6-3 3-6 7-6(5) in the other semifinal.