Matthew Ebden was born in Durban, South Africa, on 26 November 1987, but he and his family moved to Australia when he was 12 years old. His family are sports enthusiasts. Ebden’s father, Charles, played cricket and tennis at the state level in South Africa. In addition, Ebden’s sisters, Tarryn and Candice, had official rankings in tennis.
Ebden started playing tennis at age five and continued to show a love for the sport after his family’s emigration to Australia. In his teenage years, Ebden enrolled at the University of Western Australia to study law and commerce. However, he postponed the course to pursue a professional tennis career.
Between 2005 and 2009, Ebden largely competed in Futures level competitions to improve his ranking. He did not make his ATP debut until January 2010 when he progressed through qualifying at the Brisbane International and made it to the second round.
He then made his singles Grand Slam debut at the 2010 Australian Open but lost in round one. The Australian also made the qualifying rounds at the following three majors. 2011 proved to be a breakthrough season as Ebden reached the quarterfinals in Brisbane, Newport, and at the Shanghai Masters.
He was also proving himself as a strong doubles player, notching men’s doubles titles at the Atlanta Open (with Alex Bogomolov Jr) and the Newport Open (with Ryan Harrison).
Ebden struggled for consistency in singles during the 2012 season, with a round 16 run at Indian Wells, his best performance. However, he continued to achieve well in the doubles events. Ebden retained his men’s doubles titles in Atlanta, winning with Harrison this time around.
Several early-round exits in 2013 singles events followed before Ebden won his maiden mixed doubles Grand Slam title. He, along with Australian partner Jarmila Gajdosova triumphed in the mixed doubles event in Melbourne as the pair beat Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak.
Despite a tough start in singles, Ebden responded late in the season with Challenger title wins at Nottingham, Melbourne, Yokohama, and Toyota. Ebden’s ATP form tailed off in 2014 following early-round exits. However, he made round two at the Australian and US Open events.
In mixed doubles, he reached the Australian Open semi-final but lost against Sania Mirza and Horia Tecau. Ebden also notched another men’s doubles title with Kevin Anderson in Acapulco. 2015 was an inconsistent year as Ebden failed to win a single title before he was injured in February 2016 and missed most of that season.
The Australian came back strongly in 2017 and reached his first-ever ATP final at the Hall of Fame Open but lost to John Isner. Another decent season followed in 2018 as Ebden broke into the Top 40 following a third-round run at Wimbledon and a second-round appearance at the US Open.
However, Ebden tumbled down the ATP Rankings following a loss of form in singles between 2019 and 2022. In 2021, the Australian failed to progress past qualifying at all four majors. But Ebden’s focus on doubles events from 2022 paid off as he achieved monumental success with regular partners Max Purcell and Rohan Bopanna.
Between 2022 and 2023, Ebden won five men’s doubles titles, including Wimbledon 2022 with Purcell. The Australian also started 2024 in a rich vein of form, lifting the Australian Open and Miami Open titles with 43-year-old Bopanna.
