The Rod Laver Arena echoed with patriotic chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” as Indian tennis star Rohan Bopanna and his partner Matthew Ebden entered the court after winning the Australian Open men’s doubles title.

Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden scripted history on Saturday when they defeated Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori to become the new Australian Open doubles champions. Bopanna also became the third Indian to win the men’s doubles Grand Slam title.

The Indian and Australian teams won the match 7-6(0), 7-5, while the Italians were swept away in straight sets. Before Saturday’s victory, Bopanna had never won a men’s doubles title at a Grand Slam tournament, despite reaching the final twice before, both times at the US Open in 2013 and 2023. He has one Grand Slam title, which he won in mixed doubles at the French Open in 2017.

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To advance to the final, Bopanna and his Australian partner Ebden defeated Zhang Zhizhen of China and Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic 6-3 3-6 7-6 (10-7) in just over two hours on Thursday.

When the Indian tennis ace teamed up with Ebden to win their quarter-final earlier in the tournament, Bopanna assured himself of the world No. 1 spot in men’s doubles, making him the oldest man to achieve that position for the first time at the age of 43. Bopanna became the fourth Indian to reach the top of the world rankings, following Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi (both in men’s doubles), and former women’s doubles world number one Sania Mirza.

“On the circuit, we have played lot of Super Tie Breaks, that gets us sharp. They (Machac and Zhang) return extremely well, we had to make sure we serve well and on spots. This partnership (with Ebden) has been good,” Bopanna had said after the semifinal match on Thursday.