Rohan Bopanna returns to write history: at 44 he became the oldest tennis player to win a Masters 1000

All longevity records on the ATP doubles circuit are Rohan Bopanna. Or, at least, the most important of them. The Indian, 44, the oldest to be a Grand Slam champion and also to reach world No. 1, now He broke his own record as the oldest tennis player to win a Masters 1000 lifting the title in Miami.

Bopanna together with Matthew Ebden, a 36-year-old Australian, overcame a set deficit in the final against the Croatian Ivan Dodig and to the American Austin Krajicek the second seeds, to end up prevailing in the super tiebreaker by 6-7, 6-3 and 10-6 in an hour and 42 minutes of play. First they had eliminated the Argentine Horacio Zeballos and the Spaniard Marcel Granollers with a sensational 6-1 and 6-4.

“It’s excellent for me to continue to do well in these types of tournaments. We play to try to do well in Masters 1000s and Slams, so it’s good to continue to extend that record,” the Kodagu native said once the match was over.

“We made some mistakes at the end of the first set and they played very well playoff. Afterwards we tried to relax, play and see what happened. Luckily it ended well for us,” added Ebden, still on the hard court Hard Rock Stadium.

It was the fourth title for Ebden and Bopanna as a couple, after those obtained in Doha and Indian Wells in 2023 and this year at the Australian Open, and the number 26 in his career for the Indian, who has also lost 32 other finals. six of them with his current partner.

When he lifted the trophy in the California desert, then the fifth M1000 in his collection at 43 years and 14 days, he became the oldest winner in this tournament category. Now he has settled in Miami at the age of 44 years and 26 days and has broken his own record.

It was his sixth M1000. He had previously been a two-time champion in Paris in 2011 and 2012 together with Pakistani Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Indian Mahesh Bhupathi respectively and had also won trophies in Madrid in 2015 (Florin Mergea) and in Monte Carlo in 2017 (Pablo Cueva).

In this way Bopanna and Ebden establish themselves as the best couple in the world and manage to dominate in a circuit which, in fact, has a large majority of veterans at the top. Six of the Top Ten are over 35 years old and the youngest of this small group is the British Joe Salisbury at 31 years old.