London, 21 June (agency)
India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri crashed out of qualifying for the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in the men’s singles first round. This is how the Indian players continued their disappointing performance in the singles qualifying phase of the Grand Slam tournament. Bhambri lost 5-7, 1-6 to Spain’s Barnabe Zapata Miralez, while Ramanathan lost 5-7, 4-6 to Vit Kopriev of the Czech Republic. Bhambri got off to a good start with a break point early in the first set and was leading 5-3 at one point. Despite being in such good shape, Bhambri missed two set points and gave Mirales a chance to make a comeback. Miralles continued his performance in the second set as well. India’s number one tennis player Ramanathan lost in straight sets to 19th seed Kopriev. After losing the first set, he was leading 3-1 in the second set, but failed to make a comeback after that.
Sania will be seen
After the exit of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri, now only Sania Mirza will be seen playing in Wimbledon from India. She has teamed up with Czech Republic’s Lucie Hradecka in women’s doubles. Rohan Bopanna has decided not to play in this competition.
