Indians make merry in doubles
LONDON: Experienced Indian doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi survived a scare to reach the second round of the Wimbledon on Friday. The third seeded Indian pair registered a hard-fought 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Croatian combo of Ivan Dodig and Lovro Zovko in the opening round of the prestigious grass court tournament. Somdev Devvarman and his Japanese partner Kei Nishikori also crossed the first hurdle and advanced to the second round with a 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2 win over German duo of Rainer Schuettler and Alexander Waske in the men’s doubles. In women’s doubles, Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina reached the pre-quarterfinals after registering a thrilling three-setter victory over Czech Renata Voracova and Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.
The fourth seeded Indo-Russian pair defeated the Czech-Kazakhstan combination 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Earlier, Somdev Devvarman bowed out of the Wimbledon men’s singles second round with a 2-6, 4-6, 4-6 defeat to 18th seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.
It was 68th ranked Somdev’s second straight defeat to Youzhny, who had got the better of him in the Davis Cup World Group tie at Moscow last year.
Somdev, who was making his singles debut here, admitted to having a “tough” outing Thursday.
Somdev had an easy first round when his German opponent D Gremelmayr retired midway through the 2nd set. With his loss, India’s challenge in the singles is over with Sania Mirza already out in the first round. (Agencies)
