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After a very good outing, last summer at Wimbledon, Indian tennis stars now gear up for another year, hoping for success, as sportsmen always do.
A dull first half of the year for Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna could well be reversed on the grass courts of SW19. But with Somdev Devvarman exhibiting lacklustre form for a continued period this season, a swing in fortunes would be too much to expect on a surface and tournament which has thrown little opportunities to him in the past.
On the other hand, Indian tennis queen Sania Mirza is steadily racing to good results on the WTA circuit with her doubles partner Cara Black. The duo managed to make it to the quarterfinal stage of the last two Slams, losing only to the eventual winners. The hope this time is that they turn out to be the undefeated team at the end of the fortnight. Likely to be seeded fourth, the Indo-Zimbabwean duo can bank on the top four seeding to make it to the semifinals at least. This could then throw up potential clashes against the top seeds Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei (the defending champions), or the second seeds Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani.
The Italians could be a softer team as they have never managed to cross the last 8 stage at the prestigious championships, while they have pocketed the other three Slams at least once. If they fail to break their curse, it would mean good news for the fourth seeds.
Mirza and Black have lost a match to a lower-ranked pair only once since the Indian Wells Masters. Their key to victory would lie in their ability to outmaneuver the Italians and the defending champions. Sania Mirza is staring at the delicious prospects of bettering her rank and her performance from last year.
A notable absentee would be young gun Yuki Bhambri, who is nursing an injury since the Challenger series held in February in India. He does not feature in the qualifying draw for singles. Bhambri achieved career high rankings in singles and doubles earlier this year, but failed to improve upon them or build on his momentum due to unfortunate injury hassles.
Leander Paes returned to the courts earlier this month to participate in the two warm-up events at London and Eastbourne. After a quarterfinal exit in the former, with Radek Stepanek, he is now playing at Eastbourne with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. The Indo-Czech duo will most likely be seeded fifth.
They have a mighty task at hand though – defending their semifinal finish from last year. A better performance will surely comfort tennis fans back in India with Bopanna having yet to regain his old charm with Qureshi and the impending retirement of Bhupathi.
Rohan Bopanna, the second highest ranked Indian, is entering the fray with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. The duo are the prospective eighth seeds. Bopanna had reached the semifinals last year with Edouard Roger-Vasselin while Qureshi lost at the pre-quarterfinals stage.
The Indian tole many hearts last year with his booming serve and a display of beautiful attacking tennis. What many would want is for the Bopanna who rocked Wimbledon in 2013 to come back and, in tandem with Qureshi, better his result from last year. That win saw him catapult to No. 3 in the world. Where will Bopanna stand on the Monday after the fortnight? Hopefully, higher than he is now.
Nothing in Indian tennis is complete without the mention of Mahesh Bhupathi. But this could be the last time that such a reference being is made at a tournament. Yes, Bhupathi plans to retire after the Championships at Wimbledon this year. He had earlier stated that he has chosen the holiest shrine of tennis, the site of the world’s oldest running tennis tournament, to play the last couple of matches of his illustrious and wide spanning career.
In an earlier interview Bhupathi had also named Pole Marcin Matkowski as his partner for the tournament. Yet, the entry list now confirms Makowski's entry with Juan Sebastian Cabal and their being seeded 15th. Also, what piques intrigue is the fact that Bhupathi’s name does not feature in the list. A possible entry route is through a wildcard. Interestingly though, the Wimbledon site confirms that five wildcards have been handed out to men’s doubles pairs and Bhupathi does not feature there either.
The possible implications are that he would play another tournament before retiring or possibly play the mixed doubles event alone, as a wild card. The possibility of him retiring without playing another match, though minute, cannot be discounted.
Somdev Devvarman is entering the singles main draw for the second time in his career. Not much is expected from him, given his sub-par performances this year at the preceding tournaments. He has also failed to qualify for the doubles main draw after going down to Purav Raja and Marcelo Demoliner.
Purav Raja is slated to enter the doubles main draw for the second consecutive time. Divij Sharan is also in the main draw, but as a direct entrant. He is expected to partner Yen Hsun-Lu, with whom he played the US Open in 2013 and the Australian Open in 2014.
