Wimbledon 2021: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna knock out compatriots Ankita Raina and Ramkumar Ramanathan

India’s Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna made an outstanding start to their mixed doubles campaign at Wimbledon 2021 as they beat compatriots Ankita Raina and Ramkumar Ramanathan in the opening round at The Championships.

The unseeded Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna registered a hard-fought 6-2, 7-6 win over fellow Indians Ankita Raina and Ramkumar Ramanathan in just over an hour to move into the mixed doubles second round on Friday.

Sania and Bopanna will next face the French pair of Nicolas Mahut and Kristina Mladenovic in the second round. Notably, Ankita and Ramkumar were a late entry to the main draw of the mixed doubles event as an alternate pair due to a late withdrawal from Marton Fucsovics and Timea Babos.

Incidentally, Mirza will be partnering Ankita Raina at the Tokyo Olympics later this month after qualifying for the Summer Games via her protected ranking of No.9.

This was Mirza’s second straight win in this edition of The Championships after she sailed through to the women’s doubles second round with her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands on Thursday.

Mirza, who is returning to the Wimbledon after a gap of 4 years and playing here for the first time since having a baby, teamed up with Mattek-Sands to beat sixth seeds Alexa Guarachi and Desirae Krawczyk 7-5, 6-3 in their opening match which lasted an hour and 28 minutes on Court 8.

Mirza and Mattek-Sands will next face the winners of the match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova-Elena Rybakina and Veronika Kudermetova-Elina Vesnina in round 2.