Miami Open 2024: Bopanna-Ebden Clinch Men's Doubles Title, Return To No.1 Ranking

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India's Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matt Ebden clinched the Miami Open 2024 men's doubles title following a comeback win in the final at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami during the weekend.

Bopanna and Ebden fought back from a set down to pull off an exhilarating 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-6 win over Crotia's Ivan Dodig and American Austin Krajicek, to return to the top of the doubles rankings.

With the win, Bopanna rewrote his own record to continue to be the oldest ATP Masters 1000 champion, breaking his own feat created last year when he won the Indian Wells title at the age of 43.

Bopanna and Ebden, the top seeds for the tournament, tapped into their deep reservoir of experience to fetch the final six points of the summit clash against the Croat-American second seeds.

The Indo-Australian duo had three set points on serve at 6-5 in the opening set but their second-seeded opponents warded off all three to force a tiebreaker before taking a 1-0 lead.

Bopanna and Ebden then staged a comeback as they broke their opponent early in the second set which helped them level the game. Like the opening two sets, the tiebreaker was also fought on an even keel with the reigning Australian Open champions emerging victorious.

Following the Australian Open triumph, Bopanna climbed to the world No.1 spot in the ATP rankings, becoming the oldest player to do so.

But slipped to the second spot in the doubles rankings after a quarterfinal loss at the Dubai Championships and a round-of-32 exit at the Indian Wells Masters. However, with the win in Miami, the pair will be back to the top spot on Monday (April 1).

This was Bopanna's 14th ATP Masters 1000 final. Overall, it was the veteran Indian player's 63rd ATP Tour level final and 26th doubles title. Bopanna also achieved a rare feat as he became the second Indian after Leander Paes to reach the final of all nine ATP Masters events.

(With PTI inputs)