At 43, Rohan Bopanna makes history as oldest World No. 1 in doubles

MELBOURNE: Rohan Bopanna's pepper-salt beard speaks of a durability that has survived the test of time. At age 43, he will be the oldest ATP doubles No.1 in history when the new rankings come out on Monday.

Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden scored a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over sixth-seeded Argentines, Maximo Gonzalez and Andreas Molteni, in the Australian Open quarterfinals here on Wednesday.

The match that started on Court No. 3 was continued and finished on the Marga ret Court Arena because the players spotted bubbles on the court, which toyed with the bounce, forcing the last eight clash to be shifted across the grounds.

Bopanna and Ebden, 36, have the same number of ATP doubles rankings points now, but Bopanna will be No. 1 because he has played three fewer tournaments.

'Indian tennis needed this, not many players coming up'
"For every player, being No. 1 is a dream. It was my dream," Bopanna said. "My perseverance, to stay in the sport and to keep fighting and to keep working hard (paid off). It hasn't sunk in fully. Indian tennis needed this. We don't really have many tennis players coming up. This is going to inspire a lot of people, not just in tennis. People all over the world, being 40 and above, it's just going to inspire them in a different way."

Bopanna came into the tournament as the world No. 3 in the individual doubles ranking, having equalled his career-high of July 2013.

Ebden, who wasn't aware Bopanna would claim the top spot in the rankings with a win on Wednesday, lifted his partner to celebrate during the on-court interview.
"It's an incredible testament," Ebden, 36 said. "It would've been easy for him to think, I'll just have another decent year and retire in the next couple of years, but I asked him to commit fully. He pushed himself. We pushed each other. He pushed me to improve. We both improved. We worked hard together. This is a testament of all that, and incredible effort."

On Wednesday Bopanna was a picture of calm even minutes before he stepped on the match court. He was chatting with his team or just hanging back, hands crossed behind him, watching everyone around him, as if he were in his daughter's nursery instead of a Grand Slam arena.

On the court, it was hard to read the score on the 43-year-old's face. He wears equanimity like it was custom-made.

But when the 6'4'' Indian made calls for the second seeds, telling his Australian partner Ebden that it was his shot to take, Bopanna went, 'you', 'you', 'you' like a stuttering starting pistol.

The edge in his voice was sharper than the bruising Melbourne sun. At the Margaret Court Arena on Wednesday, pitted against the Argentines, it was the keenness in his voice that pointed at his nerves.

"I have no cartilages on my knees, they are completely worn out. So, if there's somebody hitting a dropshot, I'll say, 'you'. I don't go up there," Bopanna said, laughing to underline his point. "Anyone will be quicker than me."

No sooner had Bopanna called 'you' and Ebden was sprinting, chasing pelt.

Bopanna's second coming has been inspirational in the sporting context and beyond given that he was contemplating retirement in April 2021.

The Indian's first seven tournament outings in 2021 had come with six different partners and his win-loss record for the season was a dismal 0-7. Bopanna was walking down the Costa do Estoril coastline after his seventh successive first-round loss on a Tuesday in April, it was late in the evening and the darkness inside him wouldn't lift.

"I told myself exactly where I was on this journey," Bopanna said. "When I was not winning a match, when you go five months without winning a match, it is difficult. The tour is lonely anyway and when you're not winning matches it gets even harder. The only people I spoke to were my wife (Supriya) and coach Scott Davidoff," he said.

"The focus was to enjoy myself. As I trained, I told myself as long as I was enjoying myself, of course losing is no fun, but if you are happy on the job, everyday it helps. I tried to smile, to be happy." That was the beginning.

In the semifinals on Thursday, the No. 2 seeds will play Czech Tomas Machac and China's Zhang Zhizhen.


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