Rohan Bopanna becomes the oldest man to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era

Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden won the Australian Open Men's doubles title on Saturday with a 7-6(0), 7-5 victory over Italian duo Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. The second seeds celebrated in style beating their Italian challengers and then bowed in front of the crowd at the Rod Laver Arena.

Bopanna becomes the oldest male player at 43 to win a Grand Slam title. The Indian finally won in Australia in his 17th consecutive Open, after losing the mixed doubles final last year and in 2018.

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Bolelli and Vavassori earned their first break point at 5-5, but the Indian-Australian pair ultimately won the battle in the tiebreak. The second set was headed the same way, going with serve and locked at 5-5, until Vavassori's serve was broken leaving Ebden to serve for the match. The numbers changed with each game, but the Indian-Australian duo eventually won 7-5 in the second set.

"This could not have been possible if I did not have a fantastic Aussie partner by my side," Bopanna said. It is the first Major win for the pairing, who lost last year's US Open final.

Rohan Bopanna will be world number one when the rankings will be updated later on Monday, with Ebden at number two having played three more tournaments during the ranking period. Ebden won the Australian Open mixed doubles in 2013 and the Wimbledon men's doubles in 2022.

Doubles delight 🏆🏆@rohanbopanna 🇮🇳 and @mattebden 🇦🇺 defeat Italian duo Bolelli/Vavassori 🇮🇹 7-6(0) 7-5. @wwos • @espn • @eurosport • @wowowtennis pic.twitter.com/WaR2KXF9kp

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 27, 2024

"Age truly really is not even a number for this guy. He's young at heart, he's a champion, he's a warrior. He's fought hard by my side this past year" Ebden said.

Only the iconic Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have won Major titles for India in men's tennis while trailblazer Sania Mirza did it in women's tennis. For Bopanna it is his second Grand Slam title, having won the French Open mixed doubles with Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski in 2017.