Australia’s Matt Ebden and Max Purcell emulate Woodies with Wimbledon doubles title

• Pair beat Nikola Mekti and Mate Pavi in epic five-set final
• Croatian Pavi plays entire match with broken right hand

Matt Ebden and Max Purcell dug deep to join some of the greats of Australian tennis as Wimbledon men's doubles champions. Two days after saving five match points in the semi-final, Ebden and Purcell battled for four hours, 11 minutes on Saturday to defeat Croatia's defending champions Nikola Mekti and Mate Pavi 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (3-7), 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10-2) in an equally epic title match.

Runners-up to Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis in the Australian Open doubles final in January, Ebden and Purcell are the first Australians to reign at the All England Club since Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge won the last of their six Wimbledon crowns 22 years ago. Victory for Ebden also went some way towards atoning for his mixed doubles final defeat with veteran Samantha Stosur on Thursday.