Stationed at the net, Rohan Bopanna lunged full stretch to his right to send back a winner and set up two championship points. Seconds later, after smashing the ball from high up at the net, he slumped on the bright blue Rod Laver Arena and lay on his back with hands on the head. So did his partner Matthew Ebden, before they both rose and jumped to exchange a chest bump.
The child-like enthusiasm of winning a first men’s doubles Grand Slam was evident through those moments. The age, well, not so much. At age 43 and attempt 61 since making his doubles debut in a Major 16 years ago, Bopanna finally wrapped his hands around a men’s doubles Slam title for the first time at the Australian Open on Saturday to become the oldest man to do so.
The Indian and his Australian partner, who also won the 2022 Wimbledon with compatriot Max Purcell, defeated the Italian combine of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-6(0), 7-5 in the final that had emotions oozing at the end of it. Especially from the Indian whose beard now has specks of white but tennis remains red-hot in the doubles circuit.
Adding to Saturday’s first on Monday will be Bopanna occupying the world No.1 spot in doubles, and the Bopanna-Ebden pair becoming the new No.1 doubles team. Plenty of firsts brewing for the late-blooming coffee connoisseur from Bengaluru.
“Totally amazing feeling winning my first men’s doubles Grand Slam title here,” Bopanna said after the win.
“I’d like to say — never, ever have any limitations. Keep believing in yourselves, because you never know when life can change and make it absolutely magical.”
Bopanna, the 2017 French Open mixed doubles champion, has experienced the feel of winning a Slam but this clearly meant much more. For it took a long while coming. Turning pro more than two decades ago and making his Slam debut in 2008 after switching from singles to doubles, Bopanna pocketed 24 titles on the ATP Tour. Slam success though eluded him, knocking on the door twice (2010 US Open final, 2023 US Open final) yet unable to enter the coveted club.
At the back end of a lengthy career that saw him surge to as high as No. 3 in the rankings a decade ago, battling injuries either side of it (knee being the worst), Bopanna endured a patch of seven straight first-round exits in early 2021. Right then, he reckoned he was done with tennis.
“I sent her a video message, where I said I’m going to call it a day, because I was not winning matches at all,” Bopanna, addressing his wife Supriya, said on court. “But that perseverance inside me kept me going… And then I found a wonderful partner to get me to all the laurels.”
Joining forces with that partner at the start of last year, Bopanna and Ebden won ATP titles at Doha and Indian Wells Masters before stepping it up in Slams. A Wimbledon semi-final entry was backed up by a run to the US Open final.
The Australian Open had not been Bopanna’s Happy Slam — in his 16 previous visits, he never made it past the third round in men’s doubles — but the Indian-Aussie pair found joy this time around. The second seeds were the better team in the final, where both pairs thwarted break points in the opening set to unlock a tiebreaker. Bopanna was locked in there, kicking it off with a trademark booming serve and following it up with crisp forehand winners as the Italians could not even get on board.
The crucial break in the second set came in the 11th game, in which a Bopanna backhand return whizzed past Bolelli at the net and Vavassori double-faulted. With Ebden serving out the match, Bopanna’s appetite for lifting a men’s doubles Slam was finally fulfilled. At the ripe age of 43.
“I’ve changed it a little bit,” Bopanna smiled. “I say I’m at level 43, not age 43.”
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