Ankita Raina’s hopes of a maiden Grand Slam main draw appearance shattered but the Indian pair of Vishnu Vardhan and N Sriram Balaji qualified for the main draw alongside Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who partnered Austin Krajicek in the Wimbledon qualifiers.

Ankita lost 2-6, 7-5, 4-6 to the Russian world No 132 Vitalia Diatchenko after a brave two-hour-23-minute battle in the second round in the qualifiers.

Sania Mirza’s 2012 appearance at the Australian Open was the last by an Indian woman at Grand Slams.

Vishnu and Balaji booked their berth in the men’s doubles draw following a 6-3, 6-4 win over top seeds Denys Molchanov and Igor Zelenay in the second round. The pair will make a first-time appearance in the main draw of a Slam.

Moments later, Jeevan and his American partner Krajicek prevailed over the local team of Edward Corrie and Llyod Glasspool 7-6(5), 6-3 in the final round.

It will be the second time that Jeevan will play at Wimbledon. He had played last year with Jared Donaldson but lost a tough five-setter against Jay Clarke and Marcus Willis.

“We played a solid match from the beginning, we kept the rhythm going on our serves. There was lot of energy from the crowd. We held serves and played with lead, played a very good tie-breaker. The key was taking care of our serves because we both were feeling great on returns,” Jeevan told PTI from London.

“We are in good rhythm now and definitely excited to play. The tournament is just starting now. I don’t want to get too excited in my mind,” the Chennai boy put things in perspective.

Jeevan and Krajicek have had a great run since joining forces recently. They reached the final of Nottingham Challenger and lifted the Ilkley trophy before coming to Wimbledon.

Today’s result means that the doubles draw will feature at least six Indians. Rohan Bopanna, Divij Sharan and Purav Raja will play with their respective partners.

Other results

  • Adil Kalyanpur, in the ITF F16 Futures (USD 25K) in Spain, beat local favourite Sergi Perez Contri 7-5, 6-4 in the first round.  
  • In the ITF F3 Futures (USD 15K) in Sri Lanka, Vasisht Cheruku lost to Argentina’s Ignacio Carou 6-3, 7-6(3). His compatriot Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha beat Pruchya Isaro of Thailand  6-4, 6-2. Vijayant Malik was retired hurt against Ukraine’s Vladyslav Orlov when the latter was leading 4-2. Manish Sureshkumar, seeded fifth, beat Brazil’s Diego Matos 6-1, 7-6(2). Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam beat Thailand’s Jirat Navasirisomboon 6-4, 6-3 while Nitin Kumar Sinha won a three-set battle 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 against Muzammul Murtaza of Pakistan.
  • Vasanti Shinde lost to Spain’s Andrea Lazaro Garcia 1-6, 1-6 in ITF Futures (USD 15K) in Tunisia. 
  • Mihika Yadav and Zeel Desai won their first round matches at the ITF Futures (USD 15K) in Portugal. Mihika beat USA’s Lauren Proctor 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 while Zeel got the better of Zimbabwe’s Valeria Bhunu 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

(With inputs from PTI)