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Indian pair Yukki Bhambri and Sakth Meneni put up a valiant fight before going down to Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and France’s Adrien Mannarino in a three-set match for a first-round exit at Wimbledon, here on Sunday.
After a poor opening set, Bhambri and Myneni were at their best and broke the Spanish-French pair in the 10th game to make the match even but they were unable to capitalize on eventually losing 4-6, 6-4, 4-6 in a two-hour battle.
India’s challenge in mixed doubles came to an end after sixth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski were knocked out by 2019 Wimbledon champions Ivan Dodig and Latesha Chan 7-6(5), 3-6, 4-6.
The Indian-Canadian duo, who won the 2017 French Open, took the first set after winning a tiebreaker in a 53-minute battle.
Bubana and Dabrowski broke the Croatian-Taiwanese duo in games two and four to take a 4-2 lead. But Dodig and Chan bounced back to break Bubana and Dabrowski in the seventh game before leveling the score 6-all to force a tiebreaker.
But what followed was a heartbreak for the 43-year-old Indian who was playing in his final season.
The second set was a straight forward case for Dodig and Chan, who smashed Bubanna and Dabrowski in the eighth game before winning it in 36 minutes.
Dudig and Chan kept up the momentum and took a 4-2 lead after breaking the third game and closing it out in the tenth game.
India’s best doubles player, Bopanna, has kept his hopes alive in men’s doubles with Australian partner Matthew Ebden.
The sixth-seeded Indian-Australian duo will face unseeded British duo Jacob Fearnley and Yohanus on Monday in the second round.
Dhamne progressed in the boys’ singles
Indian teenager Manas Damen moved into the second round of the boys’ singles with an easy straight-set victory over 47th-ranked 16-year-old Australian Hayden Jones.
Damen (15 years old) defeated his opponent 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 13 minutes, and may advance to Bolivia, seeded first and second, Juan Carlos Prado Angelo.
Damen, who trains at the Biatti Tennis Center in Italy, earlier beat Vuk Rajinovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of qualifying before squeezing out in a tough three sets against Turkey’s 10th seed Atakan Karahan.
This is the second junior Grand Slam appearance of the season for Dhamne, who competed at the Australian Open where he retired in the second round.
Dhamne made fewer unforced errors – 17 to his opponent’s 34 – and won 88 percent of his points on his first serve to easily defeat his higher-ranked Australian opponent.
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