Melbourne: In a thrilling men's doubles semifinal, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden thrashed Zhang Zhizhen and Tomas Machac at the Australian Open here on Thursday.
The second-seed doubles specialists Bopanna and Ebden halted the unseeded Chinese-Czech pair 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7).
The Australian-Indian pairing were finalists at last year's US Open, but have yet to win a Grand Slam title together. They will face Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the final.
Bopanna and Ebden broke in the fourth game and then consolidated as they rolled through the first set. There was a brief delay early in the second set with the roof on the Rod Laver Arena needing to be shut due to drizzle.
It seemed to change the momentum with Zhang and Machac breaking in the fourth game and soon leveling the match.
Bopanna and Ebden regrouped and led 5-2 before Zhang and Machac fought back, saving three match points in the 10th game.
But the experience of Bopanna and Ebden came to the fore as they clinched a spot in the final after a dramatic 10-point tiebreak.
"I think the matchup today was tough. The guys made us work through every single point, every single game," Bopanna said at a post-match conference.
"Credit to Zhang, the way he played, there is one match point where he hit I think 200-plus on the serve and Matt got the return back. That one forehand went so fast past me. Before I even could move the racquet it was gone (smiling)," he added.
Zhang, who is ranked 625th in doubles, had enjoyed a spectacular run with Machac, highlighted by their third-round upset over doubles specialists and third seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.
Thursday's loss ended the Australian Open campaign of Zhang, China's highest-ranked men's singles player, as he had fallen in the second round to 21st seed Ugo Humbert in four sets.
"I think I played much better than my previous Australian Open runs," Zhang told reporters.
"I did a good job at the beginning of this new year. But I am not completely convinced that I have made a dream start [to the year] because of my progress here in men's doubles because I'm mainly a singles player," he said, adding he expected that he could also make it through to the quarterfinals or semis in singles at a Grand Slam in the future.
