Who is Matwe Middelkoop? The doubles special who reached the French Open 2022 semifinal with Rohan Bopanna

India’s Rohan Bopanna and Netherlands’ Matwe Middelkoop fell short of a maiden French Open final after being defeated the pairing of Marcelo Aravelo Jean-Julien Rojer 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8) in the semifinal. Bopanna and Midelkoop flew out of the gates in the first set, taking the set with an early break in the third game, but were unable to get a break of serve thereafter.
Their first serves, in particular, let them down. They lost the second set rather quickly but managed to drag the match to a super tiebreaker in the third. After a couple of loose serves and unforced errors, they were down 2-6 in the breaker, before eventually losing it 10-8.

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42yo Rohan Bopanna and partner Middelkoop went down fighting against the 12th seeds in the SFBest of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
This was the first RG Men’s Doubles SF of Bopanna’s career
[SF] (16)🇮🇳Bopanna/🇳🇱Middelkoop l. (12)🇳🇱Rojer/🇸🇻Arevalo 6-4 3-6 6-7(8-10) pic.twitter.com/roIqrcxgfl
— Indian Tennis Daily (ITD) (@IndTennisDaily) June 2, 2022
Bopanna had paired up with Middelkoop for the clay season this year, playing the ATP 250 event in Belgrade and the Masters 1000 event in Rome. The duo put together a remarkable run in Paris, with a few thrilling victories.
The match was their third consecutive one to go to a super tiebreaker, after prevailing against Glasspool-Heliovaara, and second seed Mektic-Pavic in the quarterfinal and third round respectively.
Doubles special
Bopanna may be the senior player in the pairing, but Matwe Middelkoop has notched up one of the best seasons of his career in 2022 so far. Middelkoop has been a mainstay on the ATP Doubles Tour for the past decade, securing a number of remarkable results.
The 38-year-old has 12 tour-level titles and 26 finals to his name, and has a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 2. His most notable results have come alongside compatriot Robin Haase, with whom he has joined hands for 4 doubles trophies as well as a US Open quarterfinal run in 2017.
While this year’s run to the French Open final is his best Major result, the Dutchman had also reached the 2021 Australian Open quarterfinal alongside Marcelo Arevalo, his opponent on Thursday. He has also produced plenty of solid mixed doubles results at Majors, including a semifinal result at Wimbledon 2019 with China’s Yang Zhaoxuan.
The Dutchman won the biggest title of his career on home soil at the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam with Haase, and also reached the final on the clay of Geneva with Pablo Andujar, and the semifinal on the indoor hardcourts of Marseille with Andrea Meis.
Powerful forehand
In a format of the game that rewards serve and volley more, Middelkoop’s ability from the baseline, particularly from the forehand wing, has been on full display during the tournament. The Dutchman is able to punish any loose serves when returning serve from the ad court pushing his opponents wide on their backhand to give his team control of the rally. Even on a high-bouncing surface like clay, he is able to hit with sufficient power and low net clearance to make things difficult for his opponent at the net.

With Bopanna’s consent serve and anticipation skills at the net doing so much damage, having a player who could hold his own from the baseline gave the pairing an edge, allowing the sixteenth seeded duo to get within inches of the summit clash of the tournament.