Melbourne: India’s Divij Sharan and Ankita Raina bowed out of the Australian Open men’s and women’s doubles events respectively, after losing their opening round matches, here on Thursday.
Ankita, the third Indian woman tennis player to secure a place in the main draw of a Grand Slam event, didn’t have a memorable debut.
She and and her partner Mihaela Buzarnecu of Romania lost 3-6 0-6 in just one hour and 17 minutes to the local pair of Belinda Woolcock and Olivia Gadecki.
India’s challenge also ended in the men’s doubles competition after Divij and his Slovakian partner Igor Zelenay lost 1-6 4-6 against the German pair of Yannick Hanfmann Kevin Krawietz in the first round match that lasted one hour and four minutes.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rohan Bopanna and his partner Japan’s Ben McLachlan also crashed out in the opening round after losing 4-6 6-7(0) to the Korean wild card pair of Ji Sung Nam and Min-Kyu Song in men’s doubles event.
However, Bopanna still has a chance in the mixed doubles event. He will partner China’s Yingying Duan in the mixed doubles and will face the pair of American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and United Kingdom’s Jamie Murray in the first round. (UNI)