Australian Open 2024 Highlights: Rohan Bopanna-Matt Ebden reach men's doubles final

Published at :January 25, 2024 at 7:25 AM

Modified at :January 27, 2024 at 1:48 AM

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Second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Edben will face off against unseeded duo Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac in men’s doubles semifinals of the Australian Open 2024 at Rod Laver Arena early tomorrow (January 25).

After winning 6-3, 6-1 against Ariel Behar and Adam Pavlasek in the quarterfinals, Tomas Machac and Zhang Zhizhen maintained their incredible run at the hard-court major. On the other hand, India’s Bopanna and Australian Ebden defeated Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina in straight sets with the score of 6-4 7-6 (5) to reach the last four.

Rohan Bopanna-Matt Ebden vs Zhang Zhizhen-Tomas Machac preview

With his run to the Australian Open doubles semifinals with Matthew Ebden, Bopanna, now 43, will hold the record for the oldest tennis world number one when the new rankings are out. With nine aces in two sets as opposed to two from Gonzalez and Molteni, the Indo-Australian duo dominated their serve games on Wednesday.

In the second set, both pairs were slightly more evenly matched, necessitating a tie-break to determine the winner. But in the tie-break, with the scores tied at 5-6, a final fierce forehand smash by Bopanna sealed the victory.

Bopanna-Ebden overthrew Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic 7-6 7-6 to reach the last eight. Despite being broken early in both sets, the pair prevailed by producing some excellent returns against the 14th seeds. Their road to the semifinals included defeating J Millman and E Winter (6-2, 6-4), J Duckworth and M Polmans (7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (2)) in the openers.

Talking about their opponents, who have paired for the first time at this hard-court major, they have dropped just one set thus far. According to Infosys Stats, it took the Czech-Chinese duo about one hour to dominate the Margaret Court Arena, converting four of their 10 break points.

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Head-to-head records

Matches – 0

Rohan Bopanna/Matt Ebden – 0

Zhang Zhizhen-Tomas Machac – 0

They have never faced each other before as Zhizhen and Tomas have paired for the first time.

Prediction

Up until this past fortnight at Melbourne Park, the unseeded pair of Zhizhen and Machac had never played together and had only three tour-level doubles victories between them. However, the duo has won two of the four matches they played, including against third seeds Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram. They have dropped just one set showing off some incredible performance in the tournament.

Meanwhile, Bopanna has qualified for the Australian Open semifinals in men’s doubles for the first time in his career. Additionally, the Indian has achieved the remarkable achievement of qualifying for the semifinals of men’s doubles in every Grand Slam. Ebden with Max Purcell won the Wimbledon men’s doubles title in 2022. Bopanna won the mixed doubles title at the 2017 French Open but is still chasing his first grand slam in men’s doubles tennis.

Entering the Australian Open, the 43-year-old held a career-high ranking of No. 3. The seasoned Indian is now certain to reach the pinnacle of the ATP rankings moving forward after making it to the first Grand Slam semifinal of the year. Meanwhile, for his doubles partner Ebden, the No. 2 ranking in men’s doubles is guaranteed on Monday.

Together, he and Ebden made it to six ATP tour finals in 2023, taking home victories in Indian Wells and Doha. They also advanced to the US Open championship match last year. The duo started their 2024 tennis season by reaching the final at Adelaide International which tells a lot about their performance.

Bopanna and Ebden will enter the match as an overwhelming favourite against the unseeded duo, as the Indian-Aussie pair have just reached the final in Adelaide together after finishing runners-up in US Open 2023.

Result: Rohan Bopanna/Matt Ebden to win in straight sets.