Rohan Bopanna at the gym. (Courtesy: Rohan Bopanna/X)

India”s veteran tennis player Rohan Bopanna became the oldest World No.1 at 43 after he and Matthew Ebden reached the Australian Open men”s doubles semi-finals. The previous oldest World No.1 in men”s doubles was Mike Bryan, who was 41 years and 76 days old.

Bopanna and his Australian partner beat Argentine pair Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-4 7-6 (7-5) in the Australian Open quarter-finals. The duo will take on the pair of Tomas Machac-Zhizhe in the last four on Thursday. It is the first time Bopanna has reached the top of world rankings. He entered the Grand Slam on a career-high World No. 3 ranking and was elated to reach the milestone. Bopanna said that “India and Indian tennis needed this”.

“First of all, Thank you so much, it”s been an incredible 20 years playing this tournament week in, week out, and today, reaching the No. 1 ranking, it”s an extremely amazing and proud feeling. It probably hasn”t sunk in fully yet but still credit to the entire team, especially, the family, coach, physio, and everyone behind the scenes who play such a hugely important role and always keep me positive,”

“And of course, my partner Matt Ebden”.

Bopanna was also the oldest ATP Masters 1000 champion when he and Ebden won the Indian Wells doubles title in March, last season. He turned a professional in 2003 and has won one Grand Slam mixed doubles title with his partner Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada at the 2017 French Open.

The Indian will move to the top rank officially when the world rankings are updated on Monday. He and Ebden has the same number of points but the Australian has featured in three more tournaments.