Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell win Wimbledon men’s doubles final over defending champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic

Matt Ebden and Max Purcell have dug deep to join some of the legends 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 to defeat Croatia’s defending champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 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 Aussie great Samantha Stosur on Thursday.

It was no surprise that Ebden and Purcell could barely believe it when they raised their trophies to rapturous applause on tennis’s most famous centre court after pulling off victory.

As well as fighting off five match points in the third set of their semi-final against top seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, the dynamic duo also fended off three match points in their tournament opener against Ben McLachlan and Andre Goransson.

“I thought we were out of here first round,” Purcell said.

“We were love-40 down in the fifth, three match points, and then we just won Wimbledon — how good’s that?”