Australian Open 2024 tennis: Rohan Bopanna becomes oldest man to win Grand Slam title

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden defeated the Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7(7)-6(0), 7-5 to win the Australian Open 2024 men’s doubles title at the Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Park on Saturday.

At 43 years and nine months, Rohan Bopanna also became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title in the Open Era of tennis. The Indian tennis player toppled the previous record held by Dutchman Jean-Julien Roger, who was 40 years and nine months old when he partnered El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo to win the 2022 French Open.

Bopanna’s compatriot Leander Paes was previously the oldest Indian to be crowned a Grand Slam champion after winning the 2013 US Open with Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek, aged 40 years and two months.

The legendary Martina Navratilova, who won the 2006 US Open mixed doubles title alongside Bob Bryan at the age of 49 years and 10 months, is the oldest Grand Slam champion, men or women, in Open Era tennis.

In the first set, neither team yielded an inch to the other and held their serves. Bopanna-Ebden failed to convert two early break point opportunities - one in the second and another in the fourth game - while the Italians missed the chance to pull off a late heist, squandering a break point in the 11th game.

With the set ending 6-all, it was the Indo-Australian pair who came alive in the tie-breaker and took the lead.

Simone Bolelli, who won the 2015 Australian Open men’s doubles title with another compatriot Fabio Fognini, looked to spearhead an Italian turnaround with a tight service game to kick off the second set but Bopanna and Ebden kept pace.

Both teams were decisive with their service games and the set seemed to be heading to another tie-breaker with the score tied at 5-5.

At that decisive juncture, Bopanna set the stage with a brilliant first-time return and the second-seeded Indo-Australian team hunted down Vavassori’s service with precise returns to earn the first break point of the match.

Serving for the title, Ebden, with ample support from Bopanna, held his serve to complete the victory.

This was Rohan Bopanna’s second Gland Slam title and the first in men’s doubles. His previous Grand Slam win came alongside Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski in mixed doubles at the 2017 French Open. Incidentally, the Roland Garros triumph was also the last time an Indian won a tennis major.

Bopanna’s win in Melbourne also marked the 33rd Grand Slam title won by Indian tennis players.