India’s No 1 women’s singles player Ankita Raina was knocked out in the first round of the Wimbledon qualifiers on Tuesday. Raina was the only player from the country competing in the singles draw at the Championships this year.
Raina, ranked world No 197, lost 6-3, 6-7 (5), 1-6 to Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, ending the Indian singles challenge in the qualifiers.
There are no contenders from India in the men’s singles qualifiers, nor anybody in the main draw of singles.
The draw for men’s, women’s and mixed doubles has not been released yet but the likes of Rohan Bopanna, Yuki Bhambri, Saketh Myneni, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Sriram Balaji are likely to feature as part of the Indian challenge at Wimbledon.
Raina began the match strongly, winning the first set 6-3 against Maneiro. The 30-year-old was close to winning the match, and was two points away from moving into the second round in the second set at 5-4 before losing momentum. Maneiro then took the second set to a tiebreak and won.
Raina managed to win only one game in the deciding set and the Spaniard wrapped up the match in two hours and 26 minutes.
Raina has featured in main draw at Wimbledon just once, in the women’s doubles with American Lauren Davis in 2021, losing in the first round. In the same year, she also qualified for the mixed doubles main draw with fellow Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan, but lost to Sania Mirza and Bopanna in the first round as well.
