Australian doubles star Matt Ebden had played at Melbourne Park since his early teens, but had “never seen” blistering on the courts at his home grand slam.
Playing alongside Rohan Bopanna in the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles against Argentinian duo Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, Ebden alerted the umpire to various bubbles on the surface of Court Three.
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Other Australian Open officials quickly made their way over to inspect the court to assess what the best course of action to continue the match would be.
A decision was soon made to relocate the quarterfinal clash from Court Three to Margaret Court Arena, with fans at Melbourne Park making the short journey to change venues.
Thankfully for Ebden and Bopanna, the disruption had little impact on their performance as they went on to beat the No. 6 seeds 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) to progress into the semi finals.
“I’ve played here since I was 13 years old, 14 years old in Melbourne at these courts,” Ebden said in his post-match press conference.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen bubbles in the courts here. Around the world, sometimes it happens. But here, I’ve never seen it.
“Yeah, it was a bit surprising, I would say. And a little bit frustrating.”
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If Ebden initially had his way, the match wouldn’t have even been moved.
But it was some sage advice from his partner, the 43-year-old Bopanna, that convinced him not to take any chances and move to a fresh surface.
“Even out there, we wanted to just flatten them (bubbles on court) and play on,” Ebden said.
“We’d already started the match, better to just keep going. We’re all warm and playing out there.
“So a little bit frustrating, I guess. But Bopps said earlier, experience would show us better that we don’t play that much with bubbles everywhere and keep worrying that they’re there, let’s get a clean court and move.
“It was the best decision, I think. We moved on and that was it.”
Ebden and Bopanna will face Tomáš Macháč and Zhang Zhizhen in the semi finals.