Wimbledon 2016: Bopanna-Rodionova win, Sania-Dodig out

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Anastasia Rodionova advanced to the third round but it was curtains for top seeded Indo-Croatian combo of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig in the mixed doubles competition at the Wimbledon.

Bopanna and Rodionova, seeded 13^th, defeated Treat Huey of Phillipines and Alicja Rosolska of Poland 6-3 7-5 in a second round match that lasted little less than an hour. The Indo-Australian pair will next face Colombian duo of Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Mariana Duque-Marino.

Sania and Ivan, however, bowed out after losing to unseeded British duo of Neal Skupski and Anna Smith 6-4 3-6 5-7 in a match that lasted over two hours.

The Mirza-Dodig pair paid for their profligacy as they bungled on multiple match points in the final set before the unheralded British came out trumps.

Both pairs traded a couple of breaks in the first set before the top seeds got a third break, which enabled them to close the set at 6-4.

Sania and Dodig looked on course for an easy victory but Neal and Anna came back strongly, getting a break and winning the second set 6-3. The fancied Indo-Croat pair had problem with their second serve and their success rate was a mere 38 percent.

In the final set, Mirza-Dodig pair were 5-3 up serving for the match at 40-30. However, the British kept on fighting as they saved another match point before winning a break to make it 4-5. While serving to stay in the match, the Britons again were standing at the cusp of defeat with Mirza-Dodig getting another chance to seal the issue, but they failed.

The 11^th game saw the locals break the serve of the top seeds and then serve out the match in the 12^th game.

In the girls’ event, India’s Karman Kaur Thandi’s poor show at the junior Grand Slams continued as Mariam Bolkvadze of Georgia won her second round match 4-6 6-2 6-2 in a little over two hours. Thandi had previously lost in the first round at the French Open.