Bopanna-Ebden make winning start at Wimbledon

Wimbledon: India's Rohan Bopanna and his men's doubles partner Matthew Ebden from Australia survived a scare before prevailing over Argentine duo of Guillermo Duran and Tomas Etcheverry to advance to the second round of the Wimbledon here.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Australian duo outwitted the spirited Argentine pair 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (10-8) in their opening match that lasted two hours and 12 minutes.

The 43-year-old Bopanna and 35-year-old Ebden, who claimed two doubles titles on the ATP Tour earlier this year, will next face the unseeded British pair of Jacob Fearnley and Johannus Monday on Sunday.

Bopanna and Ebden claimed the Qatar Open in February and in March, the Indian became the oldest player to win a Master Series tournament (ATP1000) at Indian Wells in USA.

Bopanna had broken the record of Canadian Daniel Nestor, who had won the Cincinnati Masters title when he was 42 in 2015.

Bopanna will pair up with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski in the mixed doubles on Saturday. The sixth seeded pair, which won the French Open crown in 2017, will open against the unseeded duo of Croatia's Ivan Dodig and Latisha Chan of Chinese Taipei.

More Indians will be in action on Saturday with Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni taking on Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and Adrian Mannarino of France, and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Sriram Balaji facing second seeds Austin Krajicek of the USA and Ivan Dodig in the opening round.