Turin [Italy], November 18 : The ATP Finals campaign of Indian tennis veteran Rohan Bopanna and Australian Matthew Ebden in men's doubles competition concluded in the semifinals after a loss to Spain's Marcel Granollers and Argentina's Horacio Zeballos in Turin, Italy on Saturday.
In less than two hours, the third-seeded Indian-Australian team lost 7-6, 6-4 to the fifth-seeded 2023 Wimbledon finalists in Turin. The match took place on the hard courts of the Pala Alpitour.
For the first seven games, both couples easily held their serves. In the eighth game, Bopanna and Ebden had a break-point opportunity, but the Australian made an unforced error, tying the score at 4-4.
In the eleventh game, Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos took advantage of a few of the double faults by Ebden to gain the early lead, hold their service, and eventually take the break.
The second set began with the seemingly flawless 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna maintaining his serve on love. Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos had taken the lead in the second set thanks to a couple of double faults committed by Ebden in the third game, which proved to be decisive.
Bopanna and Ebden subsequently lost in the semi-finals because they were unable to break their opponents in the remaining portion of the set.
Bopanna had previously participated in the ATP Finals three times, in 2011, 2012 and 2015-2016. The Indian tennis player lost in the finals in both 2012 and 2015, the first time around with fellow countryman Mahesh Bhupathi and the second time around with Florin Mergea of Romania. To date, no Indian has taken home the ATP Finals trophy.
Bopanna made history earlier in Turin when he became the oldest player to advance to the ATP Finals semi-finals. With Ebden, Bopanna also defeated the winners of the Australian Open, Rinky Hijikata-Jason Kubler, and the defending Wimbledon champions, Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, in straight sets.
Bopanna also enjoyed a fantastic 2023 campaign. He and Matthew Ebden won the Indian Wells doubles event, becoming him the oldest tennis player in history to win an ATP Masters 1000 championship.
After the Indian and Ebden reached the championship match of the US Open 2023 men's doubles competition, Bopanna also became the oldest person to reach a Grand Slam final.
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