‘Oldest World No. 1’ Rohan Bopanna Makes History, Enters Australian Open Semis With Matthew Ebden

India star Rohan Bopanna made Grand Slam history as he progressed to the semi-finals of the Australian Open 2024 men’s doubles event. Bopanna and his partner Matthew Ebden reached the semi-finals with a straight-sets win against the Argentine pair of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni on Wednesday. Courtesy of the quarter-final win in the Australian Open, Bopanna will become the No. 1 men’s doubles player in the world, at the age of 43. When the rankings are updated, he will become the oldest player in the sport’s history to clinch the numero uno spot.

The feat comes less than a year after Bopanna became the oldest man to qualify for a grand slam final in the Open era, when he and his partner Ebden lost the US Open 2023 final. Bopanna had made his debut more than 20 years ago.

Bopanna entered the Australian Open with a career-high ranking of No. 3. Having progressed to the semi-finals of the year’s first Grand Slam, the veteran Indian is assured of becoming the new No. 1 when the rankings will be updated next week. His men’s doubles partner Mathew Ebden, is assured of the No. 2 spot spot in men’s doubles rankings.

BOPANNA TO BECOME WORLD NO 1 FOR THE FIRST TIME AT AGE 43@rohanbopanna will reach the rankings summit as he moves into the SF of the Australian Open pic.twitter.com/4ne80n0qZ7

— Indian Tennis Daily (ITD) (@IndTennisDaily) January 24, 2024

It was for the first time in 17 attempts that Bopanna managed to enter the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

The 43-year-old and his partner recorded a comfortable 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over sixth seeded Argentinian duo of Máximo González and Andrés Molteni in the quarterfinals that lasted an hour and 46 minutes.

The second-seeded Indo-Australian pair will cross swords with unseeded Tomas Machac and Zhizhen Zhang in the semi-finals.

Earlier, Rajeev Ram of the USA was the oldest player to be ranked world no. 1 when he had achieve the top ranking in October 2022 at the age of 38 for the first time in his career.

Bopanna, who had achieved the highest rank was world No. 3 for the first time in 2013, is the fourth Indian after Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza to take the world number one rank in doubles.

He will take over the top position from USA’s Austin Krajicek, who and his Croatian partner Ivan Dodig lost in the second round.

Bopanna won the mixed doubles title at French Open in 2017 alongside Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski. However, a title has eluded him in men’s doubles, having finished runner-up twice at the US Open in 2010 with Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Quresh and 2023 with Ebden.

In fact, Bopanna’s feat at the US Open last year made him the oldest-ever Grand Slam finalist.

Bopanna is also the oldest player to claim a men’s doubles title at a Masters 1000 event. He achieved the feat last year at the age of 43 with Ebden, winning the prestigious Indian Wells tournament.

WIth PTI inputs