Good day for India at Wimbledon; Sania, Bopanna register wins

It was a good day for India at Wimbledon as tennis ace Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna and Purav Raja defeated their opponents in their respective categories to advance to the second round here on Thursday.

Tennis star Sania Mirza and her women's doubles partner Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium defeated Naomi Osaka and Shuai Zhang in straight sets to advance. Bopanna along with French player Édouard Roger-Vasselin edged past German pair of Dustin Brown and Mischa Zverev 6-3, 7-6, 6-4 in men's doubles category.

It was a cake walk for Sania-Kirsten as they outplayed their Japanese-Chinese opponents 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 12 minutes at Court 11.

The 13th seeded pair will now take on the winner of the match between the of Naomi Broady-Heather Watson and Katie Dunne-Harriet Dart of Britain in the second round while the eighth seed pair of Bopanna and his partner will face the British pair Neal Skupski and Ken Skupski.

In the other match, Purav Raja and Divij Sharan also began their Wimbledon campaign on a positive note as they defeated the British-Portuguese pair of Kyle Edmunds and Joao Sousa 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(8).

--IANS

gau/pgh/