Rohan Bopanna is on the cusp of reaching the men's doubles final at the prestigious 2023 US Open, a momentous development considering his lone appearance in a Grand Slam men's doubles final was back in 2010 at the same venue. Then, he was teamed with Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. In the current tournament, Bopanna, along with his Australian doubles partner Matthew Ebden, clinched a quarter-final win on Tuesday, sailing through in straight sets.
This Indo-Australian pair, currently seeded sixth and who had previously reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon 2021, defeated the 15th-seeded American duo of Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow, with a scoreline of 7-6(10), 6-1. This intensely competitive match lasted an exhausting hour and 28 minutes. Worth noting is that Lammons and Withrow had earlier knocked out the top-seeded Wimbledon champions, Wesley Koohlof and Neal Skupski.
Displaying remarkable resilience, Bopanna and Ebden saved three set points in their first set and dominated in the second, paving the way for an eagerly awaited semi-final showdown against French players Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
The journey to this point for the Bopanna-Ebden duo began on a high note. They kicked off their Flushing Meadows campaign by defeating Australians Christopher O'Connell and Aleksandar Vukic with a decisive 6-4, 6-2 win. Further triumphs against Andrey Golubev and Roman Safiullin, followed by Julian Cash and Henry Patten, have only bolstered their title aspirations.
2023 has been a fruitful year for the Bopanna-Ebden partnership. They've clinched titles in Doha and Indian Wells and made it to the finals in Rotterdam and Madrid. This remarkable run has positioned them third in the race to the ATP Finals, scheduled to be held from November 12 to 19 in Turin. Here, the year's top eight doubles teams will compete.
Bopanna's recent surge in form bodes well for the future of Indian tennis and brings him tantalizingly close to repeating a milestone achievement at the US Open, over a decade after his 2010 run. With the semi-finals looming, the spotlight is firmly on this formidable pair as they look to add another chapter to their already impressive season.
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