Australian Open 2024: Bopanna-Ebden Overcome Two Tie-Breakers To Reach Quarter-Finals

India's Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden on Monday (January 22) overcame two tie-breakers to seal a straight sets victory to reach the Australian Open 2024 quarter-final at the Kia Arena in Melbourne.

The second seeded Indo-Australian duo defeated the fourteenth seeded Croat-Dutch duo of Nikola Mektic and Wesley Koolhof in the men's doubles third round match by a scoreline of 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-4) in an hour and 43 minutes.

Bopanna-Ebden pair were down 0-3 in the first set after dropping one game, but fought back to make it 6-6 to force the tie-breaker, which they won 10-8. Bopanna-Ebden hit 3 more winners and committed 3 lesser errors compared to their opponents in the opening set.

In the second set, Mektic-Koolhof came out firing, but it ended in similar fashion as the Indo-Australian duo took the set and the match with 7-4 in the tie-breaker. The Bopanna-Ebden hit 7 more winners and committed 2 lesser errors in the deciding set.

With this result, Bopanna and Ebden booked a quarter-final meeting with sixth seeded Argentine duo of Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez. This is Bopanna's first quarter-final appearance at the Australian Open.

The 43-year-old Indian, who reached last year's US Open finals with Ebden, has a great chance of winning his maiden men's doubles grand slam title, having come close twice in the US Open in 2010 and 2023.

Bopanna, who who has 24-tour level titles to his name, has one grand slam title to his name which he won at the French Open in 2017 with Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski in the mixed doubles event.

After reaching the quarter-finals in Australian Open 2024, Bopanna is assured of the world number 2 ranking in men's doubles, and a win in the quarters will take him to the number 1 spot.

Earlier in the tournament, Bopanna and Ebden notched up a 6-2, 6-4 straight sets win over the Australian pairing of John Millman and Edward Winter in their second-round clash in Melbourne.

Bopanna brought up his 500-match tour win landmark with a 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 win over another Australian pairing of James Duckworth and Marc Polmans in the men's doubles opening-round triumph.