Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden, on Thursday, September 7, advanced to the final of the US Open 2023 men’s doubles. The Indo-Australian pair defeated the French duo of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 at the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Bopanna and Ebden found themselves in early trouble as Mahut and Herbert earned an early break and later went 4-2 up in the opening set. But trailing 3-4, Bopanna and his partner earned the break back and later took the set into the tie-breaker. In the end, after tolling hard for 65 minutes, the Indo-Aussie duo won the first set.
The second set was a completely one-sided affair. Bopanna and Ebden earned a double break to take a 5-1 lead. Thereafter, they held their serve to pull the curtains down on the match.
Bopanna and Ebden finished the match off with an ace and that summed up the dominance they had over their opponents. The duo pulled off 35 winners, 16 more than their opponents. Moreover, a win percentage of 86 (36 out of 42) from their first serve also helped them immensely.
At the age of 43 years and 6 months, Bopanna also etched his name in the history books by becoming the oldest man to reach the final of the men’s doubles in Grand Slams in the Open Era. He broke Daniel Nestor’s record of 43 years and 4 months.
Bopanna and Ebden will now face the winner of the match between the United Kingdom-United States pair of Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram and the Croatia-United States duo of Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek.
