Aussie Matt Ebden is thru to the lads’s doubles remaining at Australian Open 2024 alongside his Indian associate Rohan Bopanna.
Melbourne, Australia, 25 January 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Matt Ebden and Indian associate Rohan Bopanna will contest the lads’s doubles remaining at Australian Open 2024.
The second seeds edged out Czech Tomas Machac and China’s Zhang Zhizhen in as we speak’s semifinals at Rod Laver Enviornment, recording a hard-fought 6-3 3-6 7-6(7) victory.
World No.4 Ebden and world No.3 Bopanna led 5-2 within the deciding set and had three match factors within the ninth sport, however the fearless Machac and Zhang refused to present in.
However after two hours on court docket, Ebden and Bopanna managed to shut out victory in a high-pressure match tiebreak.
This propels them into their second consecutive Grand Slam remaining as a group.
“It was tremendous shut on the scoreboard, for positive,” Ebden stated.
“There have been a variety of shut factors there, particularly within the second and third units. And I imply, what an epic third set. I’ve acquired handy it to my associate, we’ve been preventing since spherical one. There’s been a variety of robust moments, preventing by one after the other in entrance of our residence crowd and we couldn’t be happier.”
It marks the sixth time up to now eight years that an Aussie participant has progressed to the Australian Open males’s doubles remaining.
The 36-year-old Ebden additionally joins unique firm as solely the fifth Aussie to advance to a number of males’s doubles finals in Melbourne Park’s 36-year historical past.
| Australian Open males’s doubles Aussies to achieve a number of finals at Melbourne Park (since 1988) |
|
| Participant | Years |
| Todd Woodbridge | 1992, 1997, 1998, 2001 |
| Mark Woodforde | 1992, 1997, 1998 |
| John Friends | 2017, 2019 |
| Max Purcell | 2020, 2022 |
| Matt Ebden | 2022, 2024 |
It’s Ebden’s fourth Grand Slam males’s doubles remaining look in whole, having beforehand contested championship matches on the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2022 (with Max Purcell) and final yr’s US Open (with Bopanna).
Bopanna, who is thru to his third males’s doubles remaining at Grand Slam degree, is aiming to win his first main title. If he does so, he’ll grow to be the oldest man to win a Grand Slam doubles title in historical past.
The enduring 43-year-old’s Australian Open efficiency means he’s already assured to make some historical past, as he’ll rise to the highest of the ATP Tour doubles rating subsequent week and grow to be the oldest first-time world No.1.
Ebden and Bopanna will face the Italian mixture of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori within the remaining.
The boys’s doubles remaining shall be performed on Saturday night, following the ladies’s singles remaining.
Storm Hunter, in the meantime, got here tantalising near securing a primary Australian Open finals look, with Czech associate Katerina Siniakova earlier than falling to Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens in an exciting ladies’s doubles semifinal.
Hsieh and Mertens, the No.2 seeds, required two hours and 35 minutes to safe the 7-5 1-6 6-3 victory over the third-seeded Hunter and Siniakova.
It was a match of early momentum swings at Margaret Court docket Enviornment, with Hunter and Siniakova racing to a 4-0 lead solely to drop the subsequent 4 video games and with it, the 59-minute first set.
The Australian-Czech duo recovered to ship the competition right into a deciding third set, the place the turning level of a superb-quality battle got here as Siniakova dropped serve within the penultimate sport.
Helped by trademark shot-making from Hsieh, Mertens held serve to safe victory.
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Aussies in motion – Australian Open
TODAY’S RESULTS
Males’s doubles, semifinals
[2] Matt Ebden (AUS)/Rohan Bopanna (IND) d Tomas Machac (CZE)/Zhang Zhizhen (CHN) 6-3 3-6 7-6(7)
Girls’s doubles, semifinals
[2] Hsieh Su-wei (TPE)/Elise Mertens (BEL) d [3] Storm Hunter (AUS)/Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 7-5 1-6 6-3
Boys’ singles, quarterfinals
Jan Kumstat (CZE) d [16] Hayden Jones (AUS) 6-7(2) 6-3 7-5
COMING UP
Males’s doubles, remaining
[2] Matt Ebden (AUS)/Rohan Bopanna (IND) v Simone Bolelli (ITA)/Andrea Vavassori (ITA)
Women’ singles, quarterfinals
[6] Emerson Jones (AUS) v [2] Sara Saito (JPN)
Quad wheelchair doubles, semifinals
[2] Heath Davidson (AUS)/Robert Shaw (CAN) v Andy Lapthorne (GBR)/David Wagner (USA)
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