Tennis: India’s Wimbledon challenge ends in opening round

LONDON, July 2:

India's challenge at Wimbledon 2026 ended early after Yuki Bhambri and N Sriram Balaji - the country's only representatives at the grass-court Grand Slam - lost their respective men's doubles opening round matches on Thursday.

Yuki Bhambri, the highest-ranked men's doubles Indian tennis player, and his partner Michael Venus of New Zealand went down 6-3, 6-4 against the Netherlands' Jean-Julien Rojer and Theodore Winegar of the USA.

Bhambri-Venus were broken in the sixth game of the first set and the seventh of the second as Jean-Julien Rojer, a three-time men's doubles Grand Slam winner, and Theodore Winegar

wrapped up the match in straight sets.

Meanwhile, Balaji and his partner Demoliner of Brazil lost 3-6, 7(7)-6(2), 6-4 to Sander Gille of Belgium and the Netherlands' Sem Verbeek in two hours and two minutes, according to olympics.com.

Olympian Balaji and Demoliner made a bright start, holding serve throughout the opening set before securing the decisive break in the eighth game to take the lead. The Indo-Brazilian tennis duo continued to serve solidly in the second set, with neither pair conceding a break as the contest went into a tie-break.

However, Balaji and Demoliner faltered at the crucial moment, managing just two points in the tie-break as Sander Gille and Sem Verbeek levelled the match to force a decider. The decider saw Balaji and Demoliner on the back foot from the outset after conceding a break point in the opening game.

Sander Gille and Sem Verbeek, the defending mixed doubles Wimbledon champion, then held serve for the rest of the set to complete a come-from-behind victory. No Indians were a part of both the singles' or the mixed doubles draws.(UNI)