Just one day after being assured of the world No. 1 ranking on Monday, which makes him the oldest man to win the crown for the first time in his career, Rohan Bopanna won a sensational match with Australia’s Matthew Ebden on Thursday to advance to his first Australian Open final in men’s doubles. The second seed defeated Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (10-7) in the semifinals under the Rod Laver Arena roof, advancing Bopanna and Ebden to their second Grand Slam final together.
The primary objective of Bopanna and Ebden’s strategy was to consistently attack the player at the net. In the fourth game of the match, the pair broke Machac’s serve after the Australian charged from behind with back-to-back aggressive forehands, forcing Zhang to make a mistake with his backhand. Bopanna later served out the opening set, handily winning 6-3 in only 32 minutes.
In the second set, Machac and Zhang came out firing, with the Czech attacking more at the net and using his positionings to put pressure on Bopanna and Ebden. And their efforts paid off as the unseeded duo rebounded in the match by breaking Ebden’s serve, which appeared slightly off the mark for the first time in over a fortnight in Australia.
Bopanna and Ebden regained their rhythm in the fourth set, breaking Zhang’s serve in the fifth game and serving for a spot in the final at 5-3. However, the Chinese saved himself by managing a break back against Ebden’s serve when Bopanna’s one-handed backhand went over the baseline, and then again from 0-40 down on his service at 4-5 with the second seed on three match points before forcing a super tiebreak.
The Indo-Aussie duo has won every tiebreaker they have played in Melbourne this year, including their opening 10-point shootout victory. They maintained their record on Thursday as well, managing to keep their calm and making good changes to Machac’s quick movements at the nets. The Indian ultimately secured the win with an ace.