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This year’s Wimbledon has given Indian fans many reasons to rejoice. Though Somdev Devvarman made an early exit, India’s top doubles stars provided us with much fun and excitement. Rohan Bopanna, among others proved that he is a worthy doubles player and Sania Mirza seems to have found a good partner. Here is a synoptical view of each player, starting with the best.
Rohan Bopanna
The man who has distinguished himself this time is this tall man from Coorg. Just before The Championships, it was announced that Bopanna would not team up with Mahesh Bhupathi at Wimbledon. Although it was disappointing in the beginning, it turned out to be a good decision. They have never progressed beyond the third round of a Grand Slam as a team.
His partner this year was Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin. They were teaming up for the first time. The results didn’t suggest so. This newly formed team began well.
In the third round, when they faced the in-form duo of Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares, seeded third, many would have thought that the 14th seeds would not progress. Instead, the big serving duo won the encounter in four sets. They proved that they were not the underdogs.
After passing another test in the quarterfinals in five sets against Daniel Nestor and Robert Lindstedt, they set up a semifinal showdown against the top seeds – the Bryan brothers. The semifinals was another roller coaster affair with the match proceeding into the fifth set. The Bryans mustered all their experience to thwart off the challenge from the aspiring big serving pair of Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin.
This performance of Bopanna is by far his best this year. He has reached his first semifinal at a slam since the US Open in 2011. This was not all.
Along with Chinese Zheng Jie, he reached the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles competition only to lose in three sets on a day when he had laboured hard to reach his second grand slam final just a few hours ago.
Sania Mirza
After a series of decent performances with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Mirza decided to partner with veteran Liezel Huber. Mattek-Sands had decided not to play doubles at Wimbledon. The duo won their first two matches in three sets before bowing out to the unseeded duo of Shuko Aoyama and Chanelle Scheepers, in the pre-quarterfinals in another three set affair. By defending all that she had scored last year, Mirza is assured of not losing points.
In the mixed doubles, she was seeded second with Romanian Horia Tecau, who had earlier won the 2012 Australian Open with Mirza’s former partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands. In Tecau, Sania seems to have found a good partner. The duo gelled well and came up with good performances in the first two matches. In the end, they lost in the quarterfinals against Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic, the French Open runners-up. It was a very tight affair with the second seeds losing in two straight tie-breakers. Their opponents had four match points in the second set with Mirza and Tecau saving three of them but failed to save the fourth.
Her play was wonderful throughout the tournament. It looked as though she was on song. Mirza has found a very good mixed doubles partner after breaking up with Mahesh Bhupathi and she should surely capitalize on it and try to win a few slams. After all, she is just 26 and we can even expect her to emulate Bhupathi’s feat of completing a career slam in Mixed Doubles.
Leander Paes (R) and partner Radek Stepanek
Leander Paes
This man has at last proven that he is not to be written off. After a not-so-good season so far, Leander Paes teamed up with Radek Stepanek to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon.
It is no miracle that the fourth seeds came up with a strong show. Yet again, they found themselves losing at Wimbledon to Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo. It was the same pair which had ousted them in the third round last year. At least, Paes is back to winning ways and we can surely expect this pair to win a few tournaments this year.
In mixed doubles, Paes teamed up with young Chinese Zheng Saisai to lose in the second round. He reached the finals last year with Russian Elena Vesnina.
Mahesh Bhupathi
This is his last Wimbledon. Present among the audience, was his daughter Saira to watch her dad play at the most prestigious of all tournaments in tennis.
Entering the doubles draw as eighth seeds, Bhupathi and Julian Knowle too found themselves to be a good pair. They came up with a string of good performances to reach the quarterfinals, but their opponents were the Bryans. They lost the match in three straight tie-breakers.
In the mixed doubles, Bhupathi seemed to be reviving old memories in the last stage of his career. He teamed up with Slovak Daniela Hantuchova. They were the 2005 US Open Champions. Unfortunately, they lost in the very first round.
The rest
India’s lone singles entry Somdev Devvarman lost in the first round of qualifying in the singles.
Other Indians to be placed in the qualifying draw were doubles specialists Purav Raja and Divij Sharan. The upcoming pair qualified for the main draw but failed to make it past the first round in spite of leading two sets to love against Nicolas Monroe and Simon Stadler. Still, they have to be given credit for succeeding in their endeavour to go to the next level. They will surely try to qualify for the US Open main draw as direct entries as there is no qualifying draw for doubles at the US Open.
In all, it was a very good outing for Indians at SW19. There were 5 main draw entries in Men’s Doubles. Two different teams with Indians in them reached the semifinals of a slam for the first time since the US Open in 2009, when Bhupathi and Paes faced each other in the finals. This time there were three Indian quarterfinalists and each was part of a different team. This could perhaps have been the first time in history that such a feat has been achieved, though Lee-Hesh and Bopanna-Qureshi reached the 2011 US Open quarters with the Indo-Pak express proceeding a round further.
Indians seem to have found good partners and with the hard court tournaments coming up , it could be time to rejoice. Also, the US Open has been the favourite slam for Indian players and good results at Flushing Meadows can surely be expected.
