Indians Advance to Wimbledon Second Round


London: It was a superb start for Indian tennis players as Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza notched up first round victories in their respective categories at Wimbledon.

In the women's doubles, Indo-American sixth seeds Sania and Liezel Huber beat Czech pair Renata Voracova and Klara Zakopalova 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to advance to the second round.

Having shared the first two sets, Sania and Liezel went on to dominate the third and final set, racing away to 5-0 lead in no time. Renata and Klara managed to win a game before losing the match in one hour and 27 minutes.

In the men's doubles, 14th seeded Indo-French pair Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin beat experienced Finnish-Russian duo Jarkko Nieminen and Dmitry Tursunov 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-6(6) in two hours and seven minutes to proceed to the second round, where they will face German-Czech pairing Daniel Brands and Lukas Rosol.

Meanwhile, the eighth seeded Indo-Austrian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Julian Knowle advanced to the second round beating unseeded Argentine-Spanish duo Leonardo Mayer and Albert Ramos. Bhupathi-Knowle won 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 37 minutes.

Source: IANS