Wimbledon 2023: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden march into men’s doubles quarter-finals

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden beat David Pel of the Netherlands and USA's Reese Stalder in the Wimbledon 2023 men’s doubles round of 16 on Tuesday.

Playing on the grass courts of the All England Club, the Indo-Australian pair, seeded sixth, got the better of their unseeded opponents 7-5, 4-6, 7(10)-6(5) in two hours and 19 minutes.

Rohan Bopanna, world No. 12 in ATP rankings for doubles, and world No. 16 Matthew Ebden, who won the Wimbledon doubles title with Max Purcell last year, put on a disciplined performance in the first set. They held onto their services and courtesy of winning a late break in the 11th game, found themselves a set ahead.

Bopanna and Ebden also motored along at the start of the second set. However, against the run of play, David Pel and Reese Stalder, both ranked outside the top 75 in doubles, broke Bopanna’s serve in the 10th game and took the match into the decider.

Though the start of the third set was delayed due to rain for over an hour, the match followed a similar pattern after the resumption. Bopanna and Ebden had to save three match points to take the contest into the 10-point tie-breaker.

Pel and Stalder raced to a 3-1 lead in the tie-breaker. Bopanna's backhand shots and Ebden's accuracy helped the Indian-Australian pair win seven consecutive points and eventually use their experience to close the match in their favour.

Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden will take on the Dutch duo of Bart Stevens and Tallon Griekspoor in the quarter-finals. Earlier in the second round, Bopanna and Ebden defeated the British pair of Jacob Fearnley and Johannus Monday in straight games.

Bopanna is the only Indian challenger alive at Wimbledon. Earlier, men’s doubles pairs of Yuki Bhambri-Saketh Myneni and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan-N Sriram Balaji bowed out in the first round while Ankita Raina was eliminated in the women’s singles qualifiers.