India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna marched into the second of the men's doubles event at Wimbledon after beating Marcel Felder of Uruguay and Tunisia's Malek Jaziri 6-0, 7-6 (1), 6-2 in an hour and 36 minutes at the All England Club on Wednesday.
The duo will take on the winner of the match between Russia's Mikhail Elgin and Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin and Spaniards Pablo Andujar and Guillermo Garcia-Lopezin in the second round.
Dominating from the word go, the Indian duo took just 17 minutes to wrap up the first set after converting three of the four breakpoint chances. However, Felder and Jaziri managed to take the second set to the tie-breaker, even as Bhupathi and Bopanna doublefaulted thrice, besides making three unforced errors, says a report in Hindustan Times adding that the Indians, however, managed to keep their composure and sealed the second set in the tie-breaker to go 2-0 up.
Bhupathi and Bopanna converted five of the nine break points they got, while their rivals failed to convert any of the five opportunities that came their way. The Indians also won as many as 101 points as opposed to just 66 won by their unseeded opponents.
Meanwhile The Hindu reports that Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna advanced to the second round of the men’s doubles, defeating Uruguay’s Marcel Felder and Tunisia’sMalek Jaziri 6-0, 7-6(1), 6-2 in an hour and 36 minutes.
The Indians couldn’t have begun better: the first set featured 17 minutes of solid serves, angled returns, from Bopanna in the deuce court and Bhupathi in the ad court, and sharp volley exchanges. Especially impressive was the co-ordination in movement.
Felder and Jaziri, who didn’t know what hit them, were able to push the seventh seeds to a breaker in the second set, even endangering Bopanna’s serve in the fifth game.
But Bhupathi and Bopanna recovered to get the job done. “We really worked hard these past six months to get where we are, very pleased, and we’re hoping to continue our good form here and doing well this week,” said Bopanna.
According to The Times Of India report, Wimbledon's No.7 seeds in the men's doubles — Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna — scored a 6-0, 7-6 (1), 6-2 win over Uruguay's Marcel Felder and Tunisia's Malek Jaziri on an outside court on Wednesday. The all-Indian combine needed only 17 minutes to wrap-up the first set.
