Indian tennis stalwart Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden sailed into the men’s doubles final of the Miami Open with a straight-set win over Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos. Bopanna and Ebden, the Australian Open winners, hardly broke a sweat to get the better of Spain’s Granollers and Argentina’s Zeballos 6-1 6-4 in the semifinals on Thursday night.
Bopanna had slipped to second spot in the doubles rankings after a quarterfinal loss at the Dubai Championships and a round-of-32 exit at the Indian Wells Masters, but the semifinal win here will help the Indian regain the top spot when they are updated on Monday.
Following the Australian Open triumph, the 44-year-old Bopanna had climbed to the world No.1 spot in the ATP rankings, becoming the oldest player to do so. In the final, Bopanna and Ebden will take on Ivan Dodig of Croatia and American Austin Krajicek, who beat the German duo of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Putz 6-4 6-7(7) 10-7 in the other semifinal.
For Bopanna, this will be his 14th ATP Masters 1000 final and the first in Miami. Overall, this will be his 63rd ATP Tour level final. He has so far won 25 doubles titles. This will also be the fifth appearance in an ATP Masters 1000 final for the Bopanna and Ebden pairing.
Bopanna also achieved a rare feat as he became the second Indian after Leander Paes to reach the final of all 9 ATP Masters events.
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