Rohan Bopanna, an Indian tennis legend, and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden advanced to their third men’s doubles semi-final this year, defeating Dutchman Sem Verbeek and Australian John-Patrick Smith in the Miami Open.
At the Miami Open, Indian tennis legend Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden proceeded to their third men’s doubles semi-final of the year, defeating Dutchman Sem Verbeek and Australian John-Patrick Smith. The pair, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, overcame several unforced errors in the first set to win the tough quarterfinal 3-6 7-6 (4) 10-7. The victory for the 44-year-old Bopanna, who is now ranked second in the globe, will keep him in the top ten of the ATP doubles rankings and guarantee direct qualification for the Paris Olympics in July-August.
The deadline for rankings that will be considered for direct Paris qualification is June 10.
The No. 1 seeded pair of Bopanna and Ebden did not have a strong first and second-serve %, but they broke at important points in the second set to push the match to a tie-breaker, which they won and leveled.
Bopanna, who won his first grand slam at the Australian Open this year, rose to a career-high world No. 1 ranking after the victory, but has since slid to second place with a quarterfinal defeat at the Dubai Championships and a round-of-32 elimination at the Indian Wells Master.
In the last four, the Indo-Australians will face the winners of the match between Marcel Granollers (Spain)/Horacio Zeballos (Argentina) and Lloyd Glasspool (UK)/Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands).
In January of this year, Bopanna and Ebden reached the semifinals of the Adelaide Open and advanced to the title round before losing to Rajeev Ram (USA) and Joe Salisbury.
The American-British team, however, will not face the Indian-Australian combination in the semifinals after losing in the quarterfinals.
