Rohan Bopanna wins the ATP Masters 1000 title at the age of 43, becomes the oldest player to do so

India's Rohan Bopanna became the oldest player to win an ATP Masters 1000 event by winning the men's doubles title with his Australian partner Matthew Ebden at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament. Bopanna is now 43 years old. He and the 35-year-old Ebden beat the top-seeded Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Neil Skupski of Britain 6-3, 2-6, 10-8 in Saturday's final. Rohan Bopanna has created history as soon as he won the title.

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The Bopanna-Ebden pair defeated defending and two-time Desert Champions John Isner and Jack Sock in Friday's semifinals and won against Canadian singles stars Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov in the quarterfinals. Their opening victories came in match tie-breaks against Brazil's Rafael Matos and Spain's David Vega Hernandez. Now with 11-4 figures in their first season together, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were winners in Doha and runners-up in Rotterdam.

In addition, Rohan Bopanna became the oldest ATP Masters 1000 finalist, surpassing his former teammate Daniel Nestor, who won the 2015 Cincinnati Masters at the age of 42. By this, he again broke the Canadian's record by becoming the oldest champion at the prestigious level. Bopanna was playing in his 10th ATP Masters 1000 final and now has 24 Tour-level trophies after the win. Former World No. 3 Rohan Bopanna climbed four places to 11th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles rankings.

playing in his 10th ATP Masters 1000 final, said "Truly special. It's called Tennis Paradise for a reason. I've been, over the years, coming here and seeing all these guys win for so many years. I'm really happy that Matt and I were able to do this and get this title here. It's been some tough matches, close matches. Today we played against one of the best teams out there. Really happy that we got the trophy."

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"I spoke to Danny Nestor and I told him sorry, I'm going to beat his record. Winning the title - that stays with me, so really happy with that." Rohan Bopanna added.

On the other hand, Ebden, who won the 2022 Wimbledon title with fellow Australian Max Purcell, won his ninth Tour-level title and his first at the ATP Masters 1000 level. The 35-year-old player climbed 19 places to reach No.18 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Rankings in the tournament.