LONDON: Rohan Bopanna and Aussie Matthew Ebden went down to top seeds Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and Briton Neal Skupski in the Wimbledon men’s doubles semifinals. The British-Dutch combine, riding on the support of home fans on Court No. 1, came through 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 26 minutes.
Koolhof and Skupski converted the two breakpoint chances they had in the two sets, while Bopanna and Ebden failed to take advantage of the lone opening they created midway in the opening set.
The eighth game of the second set went to deuce and Bopanna and Ebden had their chance then. That was perhaps weighing on their minds as the Indo-Aussie combine was broken in the ninth game.
The 43-year-old Bengalurean, and the 35-year-old Ebden, ranked third in the Doubles Race to the ATP’s season-ending championships, are no strangers to Koolhof and Skupski, having split their four meetings this year. Their last exchange was in the lead-up to Wimbledon, the quarterfinals of the Queen’s Club event in London. The British-Dutch pair coming out on top.
The sixth seeds, who were cheered on by family and friends, also had Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan in their corner.
“In the end the difference was small,” Ebden said, adding, “we created our chance in the first set, but they came up with clutch serves.”
Bopanna said it was a matter of going deep in the majors that they managed to do that at Wimbledon.
“It’s about converting those chances,” he said.
Koolhof and Skupski face Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos and Spain’s Marcel Granollers in the final.
