Partnering Ebden, Indian ace powers into round 3
MELBOURNE: Rohan Bopanna celebrated the 500th Tour-level win of his career with another splendid display on Court No. 3 on Friday. Bopanna and Aussie and Matthew Edben, the No. 2 seeds, scored a convincing 6-2, 6-4 win over the all-Australian wildcard team of John Millman and Edward Winters to move into the third round of the Australian Open men's doubles.
Bopanna's 501st win, a celebratory round, came at the expense of Millman, who played his last competitive match here at his home Grand Slam.
After the 67-minute exhibition by the No. 2 seeds, Millman applauded his opponents. "We got a masterclass from Matty and Bops," he said in his farewell speech at Melbourne Park.
On Thursday, Bopanna and Ebden pulled off a gutsy 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (2) win over the Aussie wildcard pairing of James Duckworth and Marc Polmans to open their campaign that also gave the 43-year-old Indian the 500th Tour level win of his career.
Bopanna said 500 wins translated to an "incredible career, a consistent career".
"When you get on the circuit you think you may win a match and then another. Slowly it gets better and better, 100, then 200. 500 is absolutely satisfying, especially when you look back and think of the number of sacrifices that you have made," Bopanna said. "Starting as a serve and volleyer and today I'm someone who serves and stays back, credit to my coach Scott Davidoff, who has been a great mentor."
A 24-time Tour-level titleist, Bopanna is chasing his maiden men's doubles Grand Slam title this fortnight in Melbourne, where the 43-year-old is competing at a joint-career-high No. 3 in the individual ATP doubles rankings.
Next up for Bopanna and Ebden is the Dutch-Croat pairing of Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic.
Meanwhile, in a first-round doubles match, alternates - India's Sriram Balaji and Romania's Victor Vlad Cornea - scored over the Italian pairing of Matteo Arnaldi and Andrea Pellegrino 6-3, 6-4.
Balaji and Cornea faced just one breakpoint in the 60-minute encounter, and that was in the first set. Next up for the Indo-Romanian pairing is tenth seeds El Salvador's Marcelo Arevalo and Croat Mate Pavic.
