Playing their fourth last of this season, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden misplaced an opportunity to seize their 2d ATP Masters identify in combination following a 3-6, 6-3, 3-10 defeat to Russian pair Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov within the ATP 1000 Madrid Open doubles last on Saturday.
In a tough identify conflict towards two singles consultants on the height in their person video games — Rublev is ranked sixth in singles and Khachanov twelfth — the Indian-Aussie pair was once blown away within the fit tie-break the place it misplaced the primary six issues. The 7th seed had compelled the 10-point shootoff with a destroy within the fourth sport of the second one set after shedding the primary.
Falling one step in need of the season’s 3rd identify after profitable the ATP 250 Doha and Indian Wells Masters, it was once nonetheless a “fantastic week”, as Bopanna termed it in his post-final speech, for the duo the place it took out the top- ranked Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski within the quarter-finals.
The run to the general that fetched 600 issues lifted them to No. 1 within the ATP are living doubles crew ratings (the tip 8 qualify for the year-ending ATP Finals). Coming off a semi-final display ultimately month’s ATP 500 Barcelona, additionally on clay, it augurs smartly for the duo’s ambitions on the French Open beginning this month after a first-round go out on the Australian Open. Bopanna and Ebden had made up our minds to pair up at first of the season.
Bopanna, 43, continues to show the clock again. The global no. 13, set to transport to 11 within the up to date ratings, performed his first last at the clay courts of Madrid since 2016. Two months in the past, he had received his first Masters crown since 2017 — 5th of his occupation total — at Indian Wells, changing into the oldest ATP Masters 1000 champion in historical past.
