Bopanna-Qureshi, Paes-Stepanek advance to 2nd round at Wimbledon 2014

Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi

London, June 26 (IANS): India's Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi moved into the second round of the men's doubles of Wimbledon here Thursday.

The Indo-Pak Express, seeded eighth, won 7-6(9), 7-6(8), 6-3 in an exciting battle against Czech Frantisek Cermak and Russian Mikhail Elgin.

Later in the day, Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek also advanced, getting past Frystenberg-Ram 6-2, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-4. In what was a tough match with lots of fast-paced rallies, the Indo-Czech pair needed 2 hours and 17 minutes to subdue the Polish-USA combine.

It wasn’t all good news for Indian tennis fans though. In the mixed doubles, India's Divij Sharan and his Japanese partner Shuko Aoyama made a first round exit.

The Indo-Japanese pair went down 4-6, 4-6 to Tomasz Bednarek of Poland and his American partner Vania King.