Rohan Bopanna on Saturday became the oldest man in the Open Era to lift a Grand Slam title after he won his maiden men’s doubles major, teaming up with Australia’s Matthew Ebden, at the 2024 Australian Open. The 43-year-old Bopanna and Ebden beat the Italian duo of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-6(0), 7-5 on the Rod Laver Arena to claim the crown.

With the win, Bopanna and Ebden claimed 730,000 Australian dollars as prize money. Bopanna’s share will be 365,000 AUD, which is equal to ₹1.99 crore. The runner-up, Bolelli and Vavassori, meanwhile received 400,000 AUD as a team.

This was Bopanna’s second career Slam after his 2017 French Open mixed doubles haul while for Ebden, it was his second men’s doubles trophy and third overall.

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Bopanna and Ebden dominated the proceedings with their serve, winning 80 per cent of points behind their first landing and not facing a single break point in the one-hour, 40-minute clash. They reigned supreme in the opening set tiebreak, for the seventh straight time across the last fortnight in Melbourne, not conceding a single point. The second-seeded pair then broke in the 11th game of the second set before Ebden served it out with Bopanna closing the match with a forehand smash volley.

Before the start of the season’s first major, Australian Open organisers had announced a 13.07 per cent increase in the prize money pool from the previous year, implying a difference of 10 million AUD. Tournament director Craig Tiley had revealed the amount to be 86.5 million AUD. Hence, the prize money Bopanna and Ebden received following his maiden Grand Slam title win as a team is 5.04 per cent more than what the men’s doubles winner had claimed in 2023.

“We’ve upped prize money for every round at the Australian Open with the major increases in qualifying and the early rounds of singles and doubles,” Tiley had said. “We want to ensure Australia remains the launchpad for the global tennis season and the players and their teams have everything they need to help them perform at their best and continue to enjoy the Happy Slam.”