 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Top Indian doubles player Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden continued their dream run to advance into the Wimbledon semi-final with a hard-fought 6-7 (6-3) 7-5 6-2 win over Dutch duo of Tallon Griekspoor and Bart Stevens.
For the 43-year-old, this will be his third appearance in a Wimbledon semi-final and first since 2015. Overall, Bopanna, a US Open runner-up in 2010, has made four Grand Slam semifinals in the men's doubles.
The sixth seeded Indo-Australian duo will now be up against the top-seeded Dutch-British pair Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski for a place in the final.
The unseeded Dutch duo stretched the opening set to the fullest before wrapping it in the tie-breaker in a 45-minute battle.
They went on to break the Bopanna-Ebden in the first game of the second set. But the Indo-Aussie duo broke back Griekspoor-Stevens and further seized the seventh game.
But Griekspoor-Stevens were not ready to give up easily as they made it 5-5 before Bopanna-Ebden duo got a break in the 11th game and retained their serve in the next to take the second set in 40 minutes.
The third set was a cakewalk for as they broke the Dutch pair twice, in the first and fifth games, before wrapping the match in a one-hour 54 minutes battle.