- 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.