Bopanna celebrates 500th career-win at Australian Open

Rohan Bopanna hit a major milestone in gutsy fashion on Thursday at the Australian Open.

Seeded second in the doubles draw alongside Matthew Ebden, the Indian notched the 500th tour-level win of his career with a 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(10-2) triumph against James Duckworth and Marc Polmans to book a second-round spot at the hard-court major in Melbourne.

Bopanna and Ebden dominated the Match Tie-break to wrap a two-hour, nine-minute victory in which they powered 39 winners, including eight aces. They will next face another all-Australian wild card team in John Millman and Edward Winter, who defeated Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-6(14-12).

A 24-time tour-level titlist, Bopanna is chasing his maiden Grand Slam title this fortnight in Melbourne, where the 43-year-old is competing at a joint-career-high No. 3 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings. After qualifying for and reaching the semi-finals at the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals in November, Bopanna and Ebden began 2024 in similarly strong fashion when they reached the championship match at the Adelaide International.

The other two seeded pairings in Thursday action also advanced at Melbourne Park. Tenth seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic downed Constantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens 7-6(5), 6-3, while 14th seeds Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic prevailed 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3 against Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul.

A Germany vs. USA clash featuring four ATP Tour singles stars went the way of the former after Yannick Hanfmann and Dominik Koepfer overcame Christopher Eubanks and Ben Shelton 6-4, 6-4. Hanfmann and Koepfer could take on defending champions Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler in the second round, if the home favourites can move past Laslo Djere and Christopher O’Connell in their opening match.