Bopanna, Mergea advance to pre-quarterfinals

Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the rain-hit Wimbledon Championships after a straight set win over Andrej Martin and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo, here today.The sixth seeded Indo-Romanian pair faced early resistance from the Slovakian-Chile combination before prevailing 7-5 6-2 in the second round contest that lasted one hour and 17 minutes. Bopanna and Mergea saved eight of the nine breakpoints they faced in the match and broke their rivals four times.

Bopanna could face Leander Paes in the next match if the 43-year-old and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski get the better of Henri Kontinen and John Peers. Paes and Bopanna will play as a team in India’s upcoming Davis Cup tie against Korea and then at Rio Games.

“Bangladesh has a proud tradition of being a pluralistic society that values diversity and welcomes the free exchange of ideas. These are the values that the violent extremists are ultimately attacking,” the official said. The US is working with members of civil society and the media to support their efforts to counter the violent, hateful ideologies and to reinforce the great majority of Bangladeshi society that values diversity, freedom to peacefully practice religion, freedom of expression, and rule of law, he said.

The official said that counter-terrorism assistance to Bangladesh is designed to improve the government’s ability to address terrorism threats from domestic and transnational terrorist organisations by building capacity to impede the efforts of these groups to plan and conduct attacks.

“We support the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), of which Bangladesh is a pilot country. This funding supports grassroots projects to strengthen communities’ resilience to violent extremism,” he said. US is also working with Bangladeshi police on community policing projects, with madrassa students to increase the economic opportunities for vulnerable youth, and with community leaders on conflict mitigation, he added.

20 foreigners, including an Indian girl, were hacked to death by suspected ISIS militants inside the cafe in the worst terror attack in Bangladesh yesterday.