Bopanna/Ebden set Bolelli/Vavassori AO final

Peter Staples

Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden reached their second major final as a team on Thursday when they moved past Tomas Machac and Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(10-7) at the Australian Open.

Australian Ebden and the 43-year-old Bopanna, who will debut atop the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings next Monday and become the oldest No. 1 in history, were strong on serve and watertight on return in the closing stages of the match.

The second seeds recovered from squandering a 5-2 lead in the third set, pulling away in the tie-break to advance to the final after two hours and two minutes. The Indian-Australian team has won all six tie-breaks they’ve played this fortnight.

"It's amazing to be back in another Grand Slam final, and a different Grand Slam," Bopanna said. "Especially I think, I know for Matt it's definitely the home Grand Slam. For me also I consider this a lot to be the home Grand Slam, coming from the Asian continent."

Bopanna and Ebden, who reached the US Open title match last season, will aim to win their maiden major trophy together when they face Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. Bopanna has won 24 tour-level doubles crowns but never a Slam. Ebden won Wimbledon in 2022 with Max Purcell.

"It's match by match, that's what we've learned," Ebden said. "Even the past few months, lots of finals. We've won some to win some titles and we lost a few too. We know just to think of it as one more match and just go through there and fight for one more match at a time.

"I'm really not going to do anything other than that. I'm not looking too far ahead. Just another tough match on Saturday. But of course very happy and excited at the same time."

In the other semi-final, Italians Bolelli and Vavassori overcame Yannick Hanfmann and Dominik Koepfer 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(10-5) to continue their dream run in Melbourne. Bolelli and Vavassori won 78 per cent (54/69) of their first-serve points and sealed victory on their third match point.

Bolelli and Vavassori are chasing their first title together, having reached finals in Halle and Umag last year.