Rohan Bopanna suffers opening round exit at Wimbledon 2025; Yuki Bhambri, Rithvik Bollipalli advance

N Sriram Balaji will begin his Wimbledon 2025 campaign on Thursday.

Rohan Bopanna and Sander Gillé were eliminated from the first round of Wimbledon 2025, by the German World No. 3 pairing of Tim Pütz and Kevin Krawietz. Bopanna’s exit comes as a major setback to India’s campaign in the doubles arena, as the 45-year-old has performed consistently otherwise, in Grand Slam Majors.

However, it was always going to be a tough ask for the unseeded Indo-Belgium duo, to come up against a pair which had won in Halle, just a few weeks back. Bopanna will be questioned for constantly changing his partners, as he has lacked consistency ever since his abrupt split with Matt Ebden.

Bopanna’s early exit didn’t dampen the spirits of India’s new doubles No. 1, Yuki Bhambri. Partnering with Robert Galloway, Bhambri secured a straight-sets win in the first round. Although the 16th seeds would have preferred a more commanding performance in the opening set, where they missed several set points—they eventually closed it out 13-11 in the tiebreaker.

Bhambri and Galloway got the job done 6-4 in the second set, to set a date with the winner of the clash between the Dutch duo Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer and the team of American Marcos Giron and Portugal’s Nuno Borges in the next round.

Also Read: Five greatest performances by Indians at Wimbledon

Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli uplifted Indian fans, with a dramatic comeback from a set down against Alexandre Müller and David Goffin, to claim the match in a hard-fought tiebreaker, where they finally won 13-11. Ably supported by his Colombian partner Nicolas Barrientos, the duo had previously come into the spotlight when they triumphed in Chile.

This victory marked Bollipalli’s debut appearance in a Grand Slam main draw. Meanwhile, India’s fourth doubles representative, N Sriram Balaji, will team up with Mexico’s Miguel Reyes-Varela on Thursday. They will face the American pairing of Aleksandar Kovacevic and Learner Tien in their opening-round clash.

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