French Open: 42-year-old Bopanna makes maiden Grand Slam semis in seven years

India's star tennis player, 42, Rohan Bopanna and his Dutch partner Matwe Muddelkoop reached their maiden Grand Slam semifinals in seven years after they rallied to down Lloyd Glasspool and Henri Heliovaara in the men's doubles quarterfinals of the French Open.

The Indo-Dutch pair eked out a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over the British-Finnish combination in a hard-fought contest on Monday night.

Bopanna last reached the semifinals of a tennis Major at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships when he had teamed up with Romania's Florin Mergea and lost in a gruelling five-setter to Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.

Bopanna and Middelkoop, 38, will face 12th seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Roger on Thursday in the last four.

The Bopanna and Middelkoop squandered the opening set but dished out a superb fightback to win the next two as emerge victories.

In the final set, Glasspool and Heliovaara again targeted Middelkoop's serve and broke it to move ahead at 4-3 but Glasspool failed to serve out the match at 5-4. Bopanna, leading 40-15 in the 10th game, hit a sensational return on Glasspool's serve that landed right on the baseline.

They were again 0-3 behind but won 10 straight points to come up trumps.

Notably, in the last-16 match, Bopanna and Middelkoop had ousted the 2nd seeds and Tokyo Olympics gold medalists Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic after saving 5 match points.

Bopanna and Middelkoop will face 12th seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Roger. 

Sania Mirza-Lucie Hradecka advance

In the women's doubles, Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Lucie Hradecka, seeded 10th, outplayed the Slovenian team of Kaja Juvan and Tamara Zidansek 6-3 6-4 to move to the third round.

Juvan (number 68) and Zidansek (Number 25) are terrific singles players but lacked cohesion as a team while Mirza and Hradecka worked like a well-oiled machine. Earlier in the day, after annexing a set each, the pair of Mektic and Pavic got a break chance straightaway in the opening game of the decisive third set when Middlekoop fired a forehand long at 30-all.