Wimbledon 2017: Purav Raja-Divij Sharan Enter Second Round; Winning Start For Sania Mirza

Wednesday proved to be a great day for Indians at Wimbledon. While the unseeded combination of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja made the second round of the men's doubles event with a tough victory, Sania Mirza and partner Kirsten Flipkens didn't face any trouble reaching the second round of the women's doubles. Raja and Sharan entered the second round at Wimbledon for the very first time. In their previous appearances, they'd never been able to cross the first-round hurdle. On Wednesday, they earned a second-round berth with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 6-4 7-6 (8-6) win over the British-Portuguese pair of Kyle Edmund and Joao Sousa.

In fact, Raja-Sharan saved a set point in the tie-breaker of the fourth set before breaking the opposition's serve to wrap up the set and match at 8-6. Ranked 57th in the ATP doubles rankings, Raja and Sharan held their serve till the 12th game before upping the ante in the tie-breaker to win the set at 7-2.

After losing the second set 3-6, the Indians did well to break the opposition serve in the second game of the third set and maintained the single break lead to win the third set 6-4. The fourth set was also closely contested before the Indians prevailed on the 14th point of the tie-breaker.

Sania and Belgian Flipkens, seeded 13th, took just 72 minutes to thrash the Japanese-Chinese combine of Naomi Osaka and Shuai Zhang 6-4 6-3 to enter the second round.

(With PTI inputs)