Australia, 36, and Indian partner, 43, win men’s doubles title‘We’re all people and we celebrate all sorts of equality’
The Australian tennis player Matt Ebden has criticised ageist attitudes in the sport, after he and the 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna won the men’s doubles title at Melbourne Park on Saturday night. At age 36, Ebden helped the Indian veteran win his first men’s doubles grand-slam crown, after the pair defeated the Italian duo of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-6 (0), 7-5 in the final on Rod Laver Arena.
Bopanna is the oldest winner of a men’s doubles grand slam in the Open era, and will be the oldest No 1 when rankings are updated in the coming week. Ebden said there was a “lesson” in people writing off those of advancing years, and Bopanna had been subject to discrimination in tennis.