India stalwart Rohan Bopanna and partner Matthew Ebden lost in the final of the Madrid Masters on Saturday.
The pair, playing in their fourth men’s doubles tour final and second Masters final this year, lost to the Russian pair of Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov 6-3, 3-6, 10-3.
Earlier this year, the 43-year-old became the oldest winner of an ATP Masters event when the Indo-Australian duo won the Indian Wells title and was chasing a 25th ATP men’s doubles title to his collection in the final on Saturday.
Bopanna and Ebden had lost the ATP 500 Rotterdam final earlier this year before winning the ATP 250 in Doha, followed by the Indian Wells crown.
In the opening round at Madrid, the seventh seeded pair beat Roberto Bautista Agut and Dan Evans 6-3, 7-6 (4), before getting the better of Marcelo Melo and Alexander Zverev with a 6-4, 1-6, 10-5 win in the second round.
They then beat top seeds Neal Skupski and Wesley Koolhof 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinal before the win over Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin.
Earlier this year, Bopanna had also reached the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Sania Mirza.
Currently ranked No 13 in the doubles leaderboard, Bopanna is expected to move up to 11 just by getting to the final, while Ebden is expected to move to 15 from his current 22 rank.
Also read:
Rohan Bopanna, wiser on court and healthy off it, finds no reason to stop after two decades on tour
The report has been updated after Saturday’s final
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