Rohan Bopanna of India and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden defeated Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Nikola Mektic of Croatia 7-6, 7-6 here on Monday to get to the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
Despite being broken early in both sets, the 43-year-old Bopanna and Ebden—who are ranked second in the draw—showed they were capable of winning by producing some impressive returns against the 14th-seeded players.
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The sixth-seeded Argentine pair of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni will be the next opponent for the Indo-Australian pair.
Additionally, they are the highest-seeded duo still competing in the men’s doubles division, and their victory on Monday over the previous world-ranked doubles team was impressive.
Bopanna secured a career-high doubles ranking of No. 2 with this victory as well.
The seasoned Indian, who just announced his retirement from Davis Cup play, was back in the zone, though, with some of his trademark backhand down the lines and brilliant overhead lobs that were put just inches inside the baseline.
Mektic and Koolhof produced some costly unforced errors in the seventh game of the first set, which gave the Indo-Aussie pair an opportunity to gain some momentum.
After that, they held both nerves and served, with no turning back. Being a dynamic player at the net, Bopanna’s team won half of the points thanks to his anticipatory play and superb volleys in the alley between Koolhof and Mektic.
Bopanna also lost his opening service game in the second set, as the Dutch-Croat team led 4-2 and appeared to be about to pull off an unlikely comeback.
In the second game of the first set, Bopanna’s service let him down, as the 14th seeds quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first fifteen minutes of play.
Bopanna stepped up his game once more in the eighth game of the second set, forcing the opponents to make mistakes that helped them win the match.
Bopanna-Ebden jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker, and their opponents knew they would always have an uphill battle ahead of them.
