Miami Open Tennis:  Rohan Bopanna, Matthew Ebden storm into Men’s Doubles Final

In Miami Open Tennis, top seeded, India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Aussie companion Matthew Ebden have stormed into the the Men’s Doubles Final last night.

Rohan Bopanna entered the final of the Australian Open to move within one victory of claiming his maiden men’s doubles title at a Grand Slam. Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden defeated Zhang Zhizhen of China and Tomas Machac of Czech Republic 6-3 3-6 7-6 (10-7) in just over two hours on Thursday.

When the Indian tennis ace had combined with Ebden to win their quarter-final earleir in the tournament, Bopanna had assured himself the world No 1 spot in men’s doubles, thus making him the oldest man to ever get to that spot for the first time at the age of 43. Bopanna thus becomes the fourth Indian to get to the top of the world rankings after Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi (both in men’s doubles) and former women’s doubles world No 1 Sania Mirza.

This was the first time the 43-year-old had reached the men’s doubles semi-final. Bopanna has never won a men’s doubles title at a Grand Slam tournament despite reaching the final twice before: on both occasions it was at the US Open, in 2013 and then in 2023. He does have a Grand Slam title: thanks to his mixed doubles win in 2017 at the French Open.