Rohan Bopanna and Mathew Ebden storm into first-ever Australian Open final

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Rohan Bopanna and Mathew Ebden defeated ZZ Zhang and Tomas Machac to enter the men's doubles final of the Australian Open 2023. Bopanna is set to become world number one men's doubles player on Monday.

The Indo-Australian pair, who lost in the final of US Open 2023 men's doubles final, defeated ZZ Zhang and Tomas Machac 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 in a hard-fought semi-final.

Bopanna and Ebden started the match with a 6-3 win in the first set. However, Chinese Zhand and Czech Republic's Machac bounced by winning the second set which endured a delayed start due to rain.

In the nail-biting third set which witnessed a tie-breaker, the duo of Bopanna and Ebden dealt beautifully under pressure. Bopanna and Ebden won the tie-breaker 10-7 to book a spot in the final.

Bopanna and Ebden will now face either the all-Italian pair of Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli or the German duo of Dominik Koepfer and Yannick Hanfmann in the Australia Open 2024 men's doubles final.

“Playing those matches together and this partnership together got us through those tie-breaks. Even though they say tennis is an individual sport, there's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. A big team has helped me get to this stage,” Bopanna said after the semi-final win.

“When I decided to play with Matt (Ebden), I made sure that I focused on what I needed to be ready to play my best tennis. I was mainly focusing on mobility and recovery and not really looking to go an lift heavy weights. I've been doing some yoga and the mental strength definitely helps me to get through these tough matches,” Bopanna added.