Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna paired to win all-Indian mixed doubles by defeating the new union of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina 6-2 7-6(5) in the historic all-Indian mixed doubles at Wimbledon tournament’s first round on Friday. Two Indian teams fought against each other for the first time in the Open era at a Grand Slam tournament.
Ramkumar Ramanathan who debuted in the Grand Slam match after attempting for 21 times and finally qualified for the singles main draw of a tennis player, went difficult in the first set with pair Anita as the first set went in favour of opponent Sania-Rohan with 6-2.
R Ramkumar and Anita Raina fought back in the second set but Mirza-Bopanna’s experience came to the fore. Bopanna had been the finest performer on the court with his strong, solid groundstrokes but he and Divji Sharan are out after losing to their men’s doubles first-round match.
Mirza has also advanced to the second round of women’s doubles with Bathanie Mattek-Stands and Raina and her partner Lauren Davis from America got defeated in straight sets to the US pair of Asia Muhammad and Jessica Pegula on Thursday.
Sania Mirza made her return at Wimbledon in 2017 with a win in the first round of the Women’s doubles event. She will represent India at Tokyo Olympics with debutant Ankita Raina in Women’s Doubles.