Rohan Bopanna’s inspiring story of age knows no boundaries met with a historic ending on Saturday evening at the Rod Laver Arena as the 43-year-old became the oldest-ever player to win a Grand Slam after he and Matthew Ebden beat the Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-6(0), 7-5 in the 2024 Australian Open men’s doubles final. He bettered the record of Jean-Julien Rojer who had lifted the French Open men’s doubles trophy in 2022 with Marcelo Arevola, at age of 40.
It was their maiden title as a team, after the pair had lost in the US Open final last year, and Bopanna’s first in men’s doubles after 60 previous Grand Slams — a record for most attempts before winning. The India great’s only previous Grand Slam win was at the 2017 French Open in mixed doubles, with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski. While for Ebden, also a mixed doubles title holder, won his second trophy in men’s doubles title after claiming Wimbledon in 2022 with fellow Australian Max Purcell.
The much-awaited trophy for Bopanna came in his best-ever show at Melbourne Park. In 16 previous appearances at the Australian Open, Bopanna’s best was making it to the third round, which he achieved six times, the last in 2018, before incurring an array of consecutive opening-round defeats, including one with Ebden in 2023.
En route, Bopanna, following his win in the quarterfinal, was assured of being the new world No. 1 in men’s doubles come Monday, irrespective of the result thereafter, making him the oldest player ever to grab the crown for the first time in his career.
Despite the result displaying a straight-set win for the second-seeded pair, it was a hard-fought battle which featured only one break of serve when Bopanna and Ebden broke Vavassori at love in the 11th game of the second set.
Bopanna and Ebden looked for an early breakthrough in the contest against an unseeded pair and created break point opportunities in back-to-back games, but were denied on both occasions as the opening set headed to a tiebreak. The Indo-Aussie pair never lost a set decider all fortnight, which included two super tiebreaks, and the record remained intact as they won all seven points on offer to take a one-set lead.
