India’s veteran tennis star Rohan Bopanna attained his career-high ranking of world No.1 on Wednesday, 24 January, at the ripe age of 43. Bopanna achieved his milestone after storming into the semi-finals of the men’s doubles competition in the Australian Open 2024 along with his partner Matthew Ebden.
The Indian champion became the oldest men’s tennis player to attain the ranking in the history of the sport and reached one step closer to winning his maiden Australian Open title.
Former India tennis player Mahesh Bhupati led the celebrations for Bopanna and took to Twitter to express his joy. Bhupati called Bopanna’s achievement one of the greatest in Indian sports history.
“Rohan Bopanna getting to World Number 1 today after 20 years on tour in my opinion is one of the greatest stories in Indian Sport!!!,” Bhupati sad on Twitter.
Australian Open 2024, Day 11: Live Updates
Bopanna spoke about his feat in the on-court interview and said that he had attained his career-high in 2013 when he was ranked the No. 3 player in the men’s doubles circuit. Bopanna said that becoming No.1 in the men’s doubles competition was special 11 years after that since a player has to keep going.
“I want to thank my team who are here, they have definitely been through some tough moments. The career high was in 2013 and you know, you have got to keep going, what can you say? Never hold back, so thanks to all of them. And most of all thanks to my partner Matt, who I will get this ranking with. So, truly special and you know it is always going to be a fantastic memory here,” Boappana said in the on-court interview.
Australian Open 2024: Rohan Bopanna in semis
On the day, Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were flawless in the first set of the match, winning 6-4 against their Argentine opponents 6th seed – Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Moltini. The Indo-Australian duo were stretched to a tie-breaker in the second set but managed to see their opponent off 7-6(5). Bopanna and Ebden will play against the unseeded duo of Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac in the semi-finals of the competition.
