THE Indian doubles pair of Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni put up a valiant fight before going down to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and Adrian Mannarino of France in a three-setter to crash out of the Wimbledon first round yesterday (9).
After a subdued opening set, Bhambri and Myneni were at their best and broke the Spanish-French pair in the 10th game to bring the match on an even keel, but they could not capitalise to go down 4-6 6-4 4-6 in a two-hour battle.
The Indian challenge in the mixed doubles also ended after the sixth-seeded Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski were knocked out by 2019 Wimbledon champions Ivan Dodig and Latisha Chan 7-6 (5), 3-6, 4-6.
The Indo-Canadian pair, who won the French Open in 2017, took the opening set after winning the tie-breaker in a 53-minute battle.
Bopanna and Dabrowski broke the Croat-Taiwanese duo in the second and fourth games to lead 4-2.
But Dodig and Chan bounced back to break Bopanna and Dabrowski in the seventh game before levelling it 6-all to force a tie-breaker.
What followed was a heartbreak for the 43-year-old Indian playing in his final season.
The second set was a straight forward case for Dodig and Chan who broke Bopanna and Dabrowski in the eighth game before winning it in 36 minutes.
Dodig and Chan held on to the momentum and raced to 4-2 lead after breaking the third game and wrapped it up in the 10th game.
Bopanna, who is the top-ranked Indian doubles player, has kept his hopes alive in the men's doubles with his Australian partner Matthew Ebden.
The sixth seeded Indo-Australian duo will take on unseeded British pair Jacob Fearnley and Johannus today (10) in the second round.
Clive Lloyd
Michael Vaughan
