Bopanna-Ebden sail into men's doubles final of Miami Open
Bopanna and Ebden, the Australian Open winners, hardly broke a sweat to get the better of Spain's Granollers and Argentina's Zeballos 6-1 6-4 in the semifinals on Thursday night
PTI
Miami, 29 March
Indian tennis
stalwart Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden sailed into the
men's doubles final of the Miami Open with a straight-set win over Marcel
Granollers and Horacio Zeballos here.
Bopanna and Ebden,
the Australian Open winners, hardly broke a sweat to get the better of Spain's
Granollers and Argentina's Zeballos 6-1 6-4 in the semifinals on Thursday
night.
Bopanna had
slipped to second spot in the doubles rankings after a quarterfinal loss at the
Dubai Championships and a round-of-32 exit at the Indian Wells Masters, but the
semifinal win here will help the Indian regain the top spot when they are
updated on Monday.
Following the
Australian Open triumph, the 44-year-old Bopanna had climbed to the world No.1
spot in the ATP rankings, becoming the oldest player to do so.
In the final,
Bopanna and Ebden will take on Ivan Dodig of Croatia and American Austin
Krajicek, who beat the German duo of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Putz 6-4 6-7(7)
10-7 in the other semifinal.
For Bopanna, this
will be his 14th ATP Masters 1000 final and the first in Miami. Overall, this
will be his 63rd ATP Tour level final. He has so far won 25 doubles titles. This
will also be the fifth appearance in an ATP Masters 1000 final for the Bopanna
and Ebden pairing.
Bopanna also
achieved a rare feat as he became the second Indian after Leander Paes to reach
the final of all 9 ATP Masters events.
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