Indian Wells (USA), March 19 (Xinhua) — India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden defeated world No. Sli Kurhoff and Neil Skupski won the men’s doubles title at the Indian Wells Masters. , Sunday here.
The victory marked Bopanna and Ebden’s first Masters 1000 title as a team and their second as a partner in their first season.
Indian veteran Bopana, who turns 43 on March 4, became the oldest man ever to win the Masters 1000 doubles title, surpassing his former partner Daniel Nestor. He is also the first Indian to win the Indian Wells Masters doubles title since Leander Paes in 2007.
“I would like to thank my partner. It was his first Masters title and my first at Indian Wells. It was a big moment. We come back every year and I pass by the restaurant near the In the locker room, I saw pictures of the champions on the wall. It’s been 12 years since I reached the semifinals for the first time, so I’m happy that I finally got through,” said Bopanna after winning the title.
After the first two sets were evenly divided, Ebden and Bopana lost the first point of the tie-break to the world No. 1 who hoped to make a comeback. They bounced back immediately to score the next two points and never trailed from that moment on, earning their second championship point after 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Earlier, the Indo-Australian duo defeated defending champion and two-time Desert Champions John Isner and Jack Sock in Friday’s semi-finals and Canadian singles star Filipino in the quarter-finals. Lix Auger – Aliasim and Denis Shapovalov. Their first win came in a tie-break against Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez.
Bopanna is in his 10th ATP Masters 1000 final and now has 24 tour-level trophies after his win. A former world No. 3, Bopana moved up four places to 11th in the ATP Live Doubles Rankings, trailing the trophy.
Ebdon, who won the 2022 Wimbledon title with fellow Australian Max Purcell, on the other hand, won his ninth tour title and first at the ATP Masters 1,000 level. . The 35-year-old climbed 19 spots to No. 18 in the tournament’s ATP live doubles rankings, setting himself up for a new career high on Monday.
“Bops and I talked about it at the beginning of the year. We said we’re not here to make up numbers. We want to win majors, we want to win the Masters, the 500, and try to get No. 1. That’s what it’s about where. Today is a big step in that direction,” Ebden said.
–IANS
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