Indian tennis icon and newly-crowned World No.1 Rohan Bopanna registered his first win as the top-ranked doubles player and it was a big one as he with his partner Australia’s Matthew Ebden advanced to the final of the 2024 Australian Open. The Bopanna-Ebden pair beat the pair of Tomas Machac and Zhizhen Zhang to advance to the finals in Melbourne.
Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden took two hours and two minutes to beat the Machan-Zhang pair in three sets of 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7) at the Rod Laver Arena on Thursday. It was not an easy game for the Indo-Australian pair as they faced some tough challenges from their Czech-Chinese counterparts.
While the scoreline suggests that Bopanna and Ebden took the opening set with ease, the Indo-Australian had to fight it out for every game. Nevertheless, the pair got an early opening as they clinched the first game. Although the Machac-Zhang pair leveled the scores in the next game, Bopanna and Ebden raced to a 4-1 lead.
The two pairs then won games alternately but the Indo-Australian pair benefitted by the early lead as they won the opening set 6-3. In the second set, however, Machac and Zhang came back strong, clinching it 6-3. The game was then pushed to the decider.
Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden seal a final’s spot in the tiebreaker
The third and deciding set was a closely-fought one as both the pairs gave it all. The set started with the Bopanna-Ebden pair clinching the first game. It went the same way as the first set but the difference came in the ninth game when Mchac and Zhang fought back and won three games (eighth, ninth, and tenth) on the trot.
Although Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden did a fantastic job of not conceding a lead to their counterparts by winning the next game, the Czech-Chinese pair was not ready to give up. Machac and Zhang won the twelfth game to level the scores and push the set into a tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker was equally thrilling with both pairs winning a game alternatively. However, the Bopanna-Ebden pair kept the lead from the fifth game onwards and it helped eventually as they reached nine points first. The Indo-Australian pair then won the tiebreaker with an ace and booked a spot in the final.
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