Melbourne: India's tennis professional Rohan Bopanna etched his name into the history books, assuring the World No. 1 spot in men's doubles tennis history after the 43-year-old and his Australian partner Mathew Ebden defeated Argentina’s pair Máximo González and Andrés Molteni in the quarterfinal of the Australian Open(AO) on Wednesday.
Rohan Bopanna kicked off the AO as the third-ranked player in the ATP rankings. With three consecutive wins in the competition, the seasoned Indian campaigner has risen to the top in the world men’s doubles rankings, followed by one of his most successful partners Ebden who is at second place. The duo will appear in the top two positions when the ATP ranking will update next week.
The match was shifted from Court 3 to the bigger Margaret Court Arena due to poor court conditions after only three games were played as the bubbles were spotted on Court, leading to an uneven bounce. The 43-year-old and his Australian mate crashed out sixth seeds Gonzalez and Molteni 6-4, 7-6 (5) in a tightly fought contest, which stretched for an hour and 46 minutes.
Second seeds Bopanna and Ebden will face unseeded Tomas Machac and Zhizhen Zhang in the semi-finals. The Czech Republic-China pair defeated 3rd seeds and US Open champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the 2nd round earlier last week in Melbourne.
The Indo-Australian pair were made to work hard in the previous rounds in Melbourne, but they looked in the zone in the quarterfinal and were fired up and did not miss out on any opportunities to put the Argentine duo under pressure.
Bopanna and Ebden were trailing 1-2 when the match was shifted to another court, but they turned their fortune in their favour after the change. With 84 percentage points won on first serve in the first set, the Indo-Australian pair wrapped up the first set comprehensively by 6-4. Bopanna was impeccable with his serves and hit some delightful winners off both his forehand and backhand from the back of the court.
Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni got better and better as the match progressed as they did not drop a game in the second set and forced a tie-breaker.
In the tie-breaker, the duo of new number one and two were lagging by two game points, but they fought back in a style to reel off three successive points from 4-5 to win the set and the match.
An elated Bopanna said, "It feels absolutely amazing and incredible to be where I am today, specially after 20 years of being in the sport and constantly trying to achieve at the highest level."
"Indian tennis needed this. Watching sports, you always have idols while growing up and someone who inspires you. I hope me reaching the No. 1 position inspires someone back home. With all the support I have received in the last two decades, this is something I have to give it back to the entire nation," an emotional Bopanna said on Sony Sports Network's studio show 'Extraaa Serve'.
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