Defending Wimbledon women’s doubles champions Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis started their quest for a second title at the All England Club on a bright note as they beat the German pair of Anna-Lena Friedsam and Laura Siegemund 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday. In men’s doubles, Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea too won their second round match, defeating the Slovakian-Chilean duo of Andrej Martin and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo, 7-5, 6-2.
Good start by Team Santina
The first set of the tennis match was dominated by the top-seeded duo as they broke Friedsam and Siegemund’s serves twice to grab it 6-2.
The second set was far more competitive and the two pairs exchanged two breaks of serve each. Friedsam and Siegemund earned two more break points in the ninth game but Mirza and Hingis saved them all for a 5-4 lead.
The Germans kept the set even till 5-5 after which they cracked under intense pressure from the defending champions.
The top seeds will next face the Japanese pair of Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato.
Comfortable win for Bopanna and Mergea
2015 semi-finalists Bopanna and Mergea raced to a 4-2 lead before rain interrupted the match. The break helped Martin and Podlipnik-Castillo to regroup and they fought back to level the set at 4-4.
However, their joy was short-lived as the sixth seeds earned three break points at 6-5 and converted their very first one to take the set 7-5.Having pocketed the opener, the Indo-Romanian duo soared with confidence and broke their opponents twice to grab the second set and the match.
The contest lasted 1 hour 17 minutes.
Bopanna/Mergea may face Paes/Matkowski next
Before they team up for Rio Olympics 2016, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna have a pretty good chance of facing each other on the opposite sides of the net at Wimbledon. Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski needs to win their second round match against the 10th seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers to set up a blockbuster pre-quarter-final clash with Bopanna and Mergea.
