{"id":363199,"date":"2024-01-27T11:55:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T12:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363199"},"modified":"2024-01-27T13:02:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T13:02:26","slug":"ebden-breakthrough-continues-aussie-doubles-resurgence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363199","title":{"rendered":"Ebden breakthrough continues Aussie doubles resurgence"},"content":{"rendered":"

M\ufeffatthew Ebden<\/a> has taken out his second grand slam doubles final, lifting the Australian Open trophy for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Perth-born veteran was paired with journeyman India's Rohan Bopanna<\/a> throughout the tournament at Melbourne Park, and the duo emerged victorious on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Ebden and Bopanna proved too strong for Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, coming away with a 7-6, 7-5 victory on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Serena-esque' Sabalenka goes back-to-back<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Crowd 'disturbance' halts women's final<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> The moment champ realised language barrier\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ebden urged the Aussie fans to show their support during an intense first set – and his timely plea worked wonders, with his team securing a brutal 7-0 result in the tie-breaker.<\/p>\n

The second set was equally as tight, with the Italian pairing were broken at 5-5 and it was all over from there, with Ebden and Bopanna serving for the match and making no mistake.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Australian Open live and exclusive on Nine,<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and ad-free on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

It was a truly historic moment for Bopanna, who at 43 years of age became the oldest men's doubles champion in grand slam history.<\/p>\n

"You've definitely got to know how old I am, I'm sure," he said.<\/p>\n

"I say I'm level 43 not age 43!<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Last time I had my in-laws here I actually won the mixed doubles, so I don't know why they're not coming more. <\/p>\n

\"Historic<\/p>\n

"A couple of years ago, I sent a video message and said 'I'm going to call it a day', because I was not winning matches. <\/p>\n

"I went five months without winning a match. I thought that was going to be the end of my journey … but perserverance inside me just kept me going and changed so many things. <\/p>\n

"I found a wonderful partner.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Ebden's win alongside Bopanna marked the third-straight year that at least one Aussie player had won the title, continuing a dominant and resurgent era for the host nation at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

"It's been such a dream come true to win here in Australia in front of all our home fans," he said post-match.<\/p>\n

"Thank you to all our Australian fans, it's been my favourite tournament forever and I'll keep coming back here forever."<\/p>\n

Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis starred during their scintillating 2022 campaign – defeating Ebden and Max Purcell in the final – before \ufeffJason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata took out the event last year.<\/p>\n

Prior to the recent stretch of success however, just one homegrown player – John Peers – had tasted doubles victory in the Australian Open since the legendary Todd Woodbridge back in 2001. \ufeff<\/p>\n

Ebden and Bopanna capped off a quality day of tennis, with defending champion Aryna Sabalenka making it two-straight women's singles titles<\/a> with a straight-sets win over Zheng Qinwen.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M\ufeffatthew Ebden has taken out his second grand slam doubles final, lifting the Australian Open trophy for the first time in his career. The 36-year-old […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363199"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363204,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363199\/revisions\/363204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/363201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}