All he does is win! Rohan Bopanna is into his first Australian Open Final after beating the unseeded duo of Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac in the semifinal. The 43-year-old had become the oldest World No. 1 after winning the quarterfinal yesterday, and now he stands a chance to become the oldest man to win a Grand Slam.
In what was arguably one of the toughest matches of his career, Rohan Bopanna and partner Matthew Ebden started incredibly well. Breaking Zhang and Machac early, the duo served well and claimed the first set 6-3. It seemed like the experienced doubles campaigners would run away with the match, but Zhang and Machac had other things in mind.
They took the second set and sent the match into a deciding set. Rohan Bopanna stepped up once again as the second seeds claimed the break. It was all on Bopanna’s racket as they tried to serve it out at 5-3, only to be broken. Soon after, the match went into the 10-point deciding tiebreaker.
Taking the early mini-break, Bopanna and Ebden took the lead (4-2) at the change of ends in the tiebreaker. The match continued on serve, with the second seeds ahead by 7-5 after the second change of ends. Zhang and Machac fought back once again and claimed the mini-break on the very next point.
But that’s when the experience of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden kicked in, and the tall Indian served it out to take the tiebreaker, 10-8, to reach their first ever Australian Open Final together.
