Wimbledon 2017 | Sania Mirza; Purav Raja-Divij Sharan win their respective openers

Wimbledon 2017 | Sania Mirza; Purav Raja-Divij Sharan win their respective openers

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Sania Mirza and her Belgian partner Kirsten Flipkens defeated Naomi Osaka and Shuai Zhang 6-4, 6-3 to enter the second round of women's doubles at Wimbledon. Meanwhile, Purav Raja and Divij Sharan overcame Joao Sousa and Kyle Edmund 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the men's doubles first round.

Sania Mirza and Kirsten Flipkens started their Wimbledon campaign on a high by defeating the Chinese pair of Naomi Osaka and Shuai Zhang in straight sets to advance to the second round of the women's doubles on Wednesday. The 13th seeded pair of Sania and Flipkens hardly broke a sweat in the first set breaking Zhang's save in the eighth game just in a span of 32 minutes. 

However, Osaka and Zhang showed signs of clawing back into the game towards the end of the match breaking Sania's serve in the sixth game of the second set but Flipkens took charge and clinched a win for the Indo-Belgian pair.

In doing so, Flipkens also rubbished the injury doubts that had surfaced after her withdrawal from the Eastbourne Open last week. The duo will next face the winner of the match between Harriet Dart/Katy Dunne and Naomi Broady/Heather Watson.

Meanwhile, the all-Indian pair of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan secured their first win at the All England Club on Tuesday after their previous two failed attempts in 2013 and 2014.

However, the Indian duo had to toil hard for their first round win against the British-Portuguese pairing of Kyle Edmonds and Joao Sousa in the three-hour long contest. The Indian duo combined brilliantly to finish off their young opponents with Raja taking charge at the net with his brilliant plays while Sharan defended the baseline and hit quick winners as they defeated Edmonds and Sousa  7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4,7-6 (6).

However, the other Indian in action on Wednesday, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, along with his American partner Jared Donaldson, was forced to make an early exit after losing 7-6, 7-5, 6-7, 0-6, 3-6 to the British pair of Marcus Willis and Jay Clarke in a match that lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes.

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