India’s Rohan Bopanna and Australian Matthew Ebden dug deep to win the Australian Open men’s doubles title on Saturday with a 7-6(0), 7-5 victory over Italian duo Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.
The second seeds fell to the ground after overcoming their Italian challengers before bowing to the crowd at the Rod Laver Arena.
Bopanna becomes the oldest male player at 43 to win a Grand Slam title, and the Indian finally tasted success in Australia in his 17th consecutive Open, having lost the mixed doubles final last year and in 2018.
“Age truly really is not even a number for this guy. He’s young at heart, he’s a champion, he’s a warrior. He’s fought hard by my side this whole past year” Ebden said.
Bolelli and Vavassori held their own in the opening set and earned their first break point at 5-5, but the Indian-Australian pair rallied to save serve and ran out easy winners in the tiebreak, backed by the crowd.
The second set looked to be headed the same way, going with serve and locked at 5-5, until Vavassori’s serve was broken leaving Ebden to serve for the match.
“This could not have been possible if I did not have a fantastic Aussie partner by my side,” Bopanna said.
It is the first Major win for the pairing, who lost last year’s US Open final, and Bopanna will be world number one when the rankings are updated on Monday, with Ebden at number two having played three more tournaments during the ranking period.
Ebden won the Australian Open mixed doubles in 2013 and the Wimbledon men’s doubles in 2022 - when he lost in the men’s doubles final in Australia the same year - while Bopanna won the 2017 French Open mixed doubles.
Vavassori was making his first appearance in a Major final, while Bolelli won the men’s doubles title in Australia in 2015.
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