Rohan Bopanna becomes oldest player to win ATP Masters 1000 title

India's star tennis player Rohan Bopanna on March 18 became the oldest ATP Masters 1000 champion after he and his Australian partner Matt Ebden won the men's doubles crown at the BNP Paribas Open.

In the championship match on Saturday, Bopanna, (43), and Ebden, (35), defeated top-seeded Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Neil Skupski of Great Britain 6-3, 2-6, 10-8.

"Truly special. It's called Tennis Paradise for a reason," said Bopanna, who was playing in his 10th ATP Masters 1000 final.

"I've been, over the years, coming here and seeing all these guys win for so many years. I'm really happy that Matt and I were able to do this and get this title here. It's been some tough matches, close matches. Today we played against one of the best teams out there. Really happy that we got the trophy," he added.

With this development, Bopanna surpassed Daniel Nestor of Canada, who won the 2015 Cincinnati Masters to become the oldest champion at the age of 42.

The 43-year-first old's victory since he triumphed in Monte Carlo in 2017 and his sixth Masters 1000 doubles championship. This was the Indo-Australian team's third final of the year. He now holds 24 tour-level awards in his trophy case.

It is worth mentioning that the Indo-Australian duo defeated Canadian singles stars Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov in the quarterfinals before shocking the two-time defending champions John Isner and Jack Sock in the semifinals.

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