Credit: X
Indian legend Rohan Bopanna and his partner Matthew Ebden of Australia defeated the Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the Australian Open 2024 final by 6-7 (0-7), 5-7 on Saturday at the Margaret Court Arena.
After losing the Adelaide Open final against Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury on January 13, this is the second consecutive men's doubles final for the duo of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden. The 43-year-old and his Australian partner reached the Australian Open 2024 final after beating Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (10-7) in the semifinal under the closed roof at the Rod Laver Arena.
The first set between Bopanna-Ebden and Bolelli-Andrea was a close contest as the game led to a tie-breaker. However, the winning pair held their nerves and pulled off a clean victory by 7-0 in the tie-breaker. The second set was also equally entertaining but this time the Indo-Australian duo won it 7-5 to create history.
The semifinal victory against the unseeded duo of Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac also marked Bopanna's first win as the World No.1 men's doubles player. On the other hand, the Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori defeated the German duo of Yannick Hanfmann and Dominik Koepfer in another semifinal to reach the AO24 final.
